HLA-A, -B, -DR haplotype frequencies in the Thai Stem Cell Donor Registry

This study aimed to report antigen and haplotype frequencies (HFs) in the Thai Stem Cell Donor Registry (TSCDR). From 16,807 human leukocyte antigen (HLA)‐A, ‐B, and ‐DR typed donors, 19 HLA‐A, 41 HLA‐B, and 13 HLA‐DR antigens were found. HLA‐A43, A80, B78, B82, B83, and DR18 were not observed. A total of 1921 haplotypes were estimated and 245 haplotypes were reliable and their cumulative HF was 75.74%. Similar to previous Thai subpopulation studies, the most common haplotypes were HLA‐A33‐B58‐DR17 (4.54%), A2‐B46‐DR9 (4.11%), A33‐B44‐DR7 (2.85%), and A11‐B75‐DR12 (2.00%). To evaluate the probability in finding matched donors, from April 2002 to August 2008, 793 Thai patients were requested for unrelated stem cell donor searching. The number of patients with HLA‐A, ‐B, ‐DR split matched donor found were 49%. Only 8% of the patients found matched donor within 1 month. However, high‐resolution HLA‐A, ‐B, ‐DR typing in TSCDR is suggested to accurately estimate HFs and evaluate the probability in finding a matched donor for patients in the future.