Scientific Journal of

  Abstract

 Background and Objectives

 It is suggested that HA-1 mismatching among hematopoietic stem cell recipients-donors be associated with acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD). So the aim of this study was to evaluate HA-1 frequency and examine the correlation between HA-1 disparity and GVHD patients who received transplantation from HLA-A2 identical siblings.

 Materials and Methods

 Extracted DNA samples were collected from 55 HLA-A2-positive donor-recipient pairs. All the patients received peripheral blood stem cell transplant (PSCT) from HLA-identical siblings. HA-1 was detected by SSP-PCR method. The HA-1 typing was performed using SSP method. Data were analyzed using Chi-square, Man withney and Z test with SPSS 11.5.

 Results

 Thirty patients showed to be GVHD I-IV and 25 pairs were without any GVHD signs. The frequency rates of HA-1R and HA-1H alleles in patients were 0.55 and 0.45, respectively it showed no significant difference with the frequency rates (0.53 and 0.47) of this allels in donors (p>0.05). HA-1 disparity was detected in 8 out of the 55 donor/recipient pairs (14.5%). aGVHD ( grades I-IV ) was occurred in 6 of patients. Two patients with HA-1 disparity did not show any GVHD signs. X² test showed there was not any relationship between the incidence of acute graft-versus-host-disease (aGVHD) and HA-1 incompatibility in the patiens.

 Conclusions

 In spite of higher frequency of HA-1 disparity in GVHD+ group, our data did not reflect any significant association between HA-1 disparity and risk of acute GVHD.

 Key words : Polymerase Chain Reaction, Graft- Versus – Host Disease, Minor Histocompatibility Antigens , Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation