Association of Serum Concentrations of Soluble Class I Hla With Hla Allotypes

Abstract

We correlated serum concentrations of soluble class I HLA antigens (S-HLA-I) with HLA allotypes in 82 unrelated Caucasian and 58 unrelated African-American putatively normal subjects, as well as in 31 individuals with stable, normally functioning liver transplants. Caucasian and African-American subjects with HLA-A23 or HLA-A24 were high secretors of S-HLA-I. We also observed that some HLA-A allotypes associated with high serum concentrations of S-HLA-I were ethnicity specific. HLA-A33 was associated with high S-HLA-I secretion in African-Americans but not in Caucasians. HLA-A29 was associated with high S-HLA-I secretion in Caucasians but not in African-Americans. All liver transplant recipients studied who were high secretors of S-HLA-I postoperatively carried HLA-A24 or HLA-A29. (There were no HLA-A33 or HLA-A23 allotypes in this group.) The "secretor genes," however, may be autogenous or allogenic (i.e., either donor or recipient HLA-A24 or HLA-A29 resulted in the observed high secretor status in liver transplant recipients after transplantation). It is noteworthy that serum S-HLA-I concentrations were low in all subjects with HLA-A2 regardless of whether the HLA-A2 was of recipient or donor origin. This finding suggests that HLA-A2 could have a suppressive effect on S-HLA-I secretion.

Increased Level of Soluble HLA Class I Antigens in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: Correlation with Anti-DNA Antibodies and Leukopenia

“…In agreement with previous findings [20][21][22], controls and SLE patients with HLA allotype A9 had significantly higher serum concentration of sHLA-I compared to those with other allotypes (Figure 4). However, patients with allotype A2 did not show significantly lower levels of sHLA-I in this study.…”

“…The HLA-A23 and HLA-A24 (subgroups of the A9 allotype) are associated with high serum concentrations of sHLA-I, and HLA-A2 with low sHLA-I concentrations [20][21][22]. It is also known that the risk of developing SLE is increased in subjects carrying certain MHC haplotypes, in the case of HLA-A allotypes the HLA-A1 variant [23,24].…”

HLA-G UTR Haplotype Conservation in the Malian Population: Association with Soluble HLA-G

“…Here, neither HLA-G*01:04 nor HLA-A*23:01∼HLA-G*01:04∼UTR3 showed any significant difference in sHLA-G levels. Several explanations are possible, for example the high levels of sHLA class-I molecules reported in the serum of HLA-A*23 and HLA-A*24 individuals might have cross-reacted with the HLA-G antibody [62], [63], [64], [65]. Interestingly it has been suggested that the HLA-A*23:01∼HLA-G*01:04 haplotype may constitute a risk factor for allograft rejection in renal transplantation [66].…”

Elevated Level of Soluble HLA Class I Antigens in Serum and Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid in Patients with Sarcoidosis.

“…It has been documentedthat certain HLAphenotypes are associated with higher serum concentrations of sHLAs, and individuals with HLA-A23or HLA-A24have a higher value than those without these two antigens (19,20). However, our previous study of the association between HLAantigens and sarcoidosis in Japanese demonstrated the frequencies of these two antigens to be almost the same in both patients and control subjects (21).…”