HLA-A, -B and -DR allele and haplotype frequencies in Malays

One thousand four hundreds and forty-five Malays registered with the Malaysian Marrow Donor Registry were typed for HLA-A, HLA-B and HLA-DR. Fifteen HLA-A, twenty nine HLA-B and fourteen HLA-DR alleles were detected. The most common HLA-A alleles and their frequencies were HLA-A24 (0.35), HLA-A11 (0.21) and HLA-A2 (0.15). The most common HLA-B alleles were HLA-B15 (0.26), HLA-B35 (0.11) and HLA-B18 (0.10) while the most common HLA-DR alleles were HLA-DR15 (0.28), HLA-DR12 (0.27) and HLA-DR7 (0.10). A24-B15-DR12 (0.047), A24-B15-DR15 (0.03) and the A24-B35-DR12 (0.03) were the most frequent haplotypes. This data may be useful in determining the probability of finding a matched donor and for estimating the incidence of HLA associated diseases.