HLA Antigen Distribution in Renal Transplant Patients & Donors Visiting Tertiary Care Hospital of Karnataka State in South India

Renal transplantation is the most successful treatment option for chronic renal failure patients. But success of this depends on HLA antigen matching between the renal recipient & donor. This study is the first report from Karnataka state of South India to find out distribution of HLA-A and B antigens in live renal transplant recipients and donors visiting a tertiary care hospital. In a retrospective study, HLA-A and B allele frequencies were studied in 345 renal transplant recipients & donors visiting our hospital, between 2005–2013. HLA tissue typing was done by polymerase chain reaction using sequence specific primers. Then Allele frequencies were obtained & analysed. A total of 32 HLA-A and 40 HLA-B alleles were identified in the live renal transplant recipients & donors. High frequency A alleles found in our patients & donors were- A*24(16%), A*33(13.6%), A*02(13.5%), A*11(11.4%), A* 01(9.6%). The most frequent alleles in the HLA-B locus were B*40(15%), B*07(13.4%), B*35(12.7%), B*51(8.8%), B*44(7.6%). Also we have found that females dominated among donors. The results showed significant heterogeneity in both HLA-A and B antigens. By knowing the frequency of HLA antigens in population, it is easy to find HLA matched organ transplant recipient & donors from different ethnic background, without a blood relationship.