[Comparative analysis of serologic typing and HLA-II typing by micro-PCR-SSP].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the accuracy of polymerase chain reaction with sequence specific primers (PCR-SSP) in HLA-II genotyping and analyze the causes of the errors occurring during the genotyping. METHOD: Blood samples were obtained form patients with chronic renal insufficiency, leukemia or thalassemia and also from normal subjects. HLA-DR and -DQ genotyping of the sera from the 110 subjects was performed using micro-PCR-SSP and comparison was made with the results obtained from monoclonal antibody serologic typing. RESULT: Of the 110 samples detected by micro-PCR-SSP, 396 alleles of HLA-DR were identified in 99 cases and 22 of HLA-DQ in 11 cases, and 10% of the subjects were identified as homozygote individuals. Examination by both of the 2 methods in 67 cases indicated high rates of missed diagnoses and misdiagnoses by serologic typing with the diagnostic discrepancy as high as 38.81% and 50.75% for HLA-DR and -DQ respectively. The antigens DR 15/16, 11/12, 13/14, 8 or 12; DQ 5/6, 8/9 were among those that frequently gave rise to errors or confusion. CONCLUSION: Micro-PCR-SSP method can accurately detect the alleles of HLA-II antigens that are easy to be missed or mistaken by serological typing method.