Regional HLA differences in Poland and their effect on stem cell donor registry planning

PLoS One. 2013 Sep 12;8(9):e73835. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0073835. eCollection 2013.

Abstract

Regional HLA frequency differences are of potential relevance for the optimization of stem cell donor recruitment. We analyzed a very large sample (n = 123,749) of registered Polish stem cell donors. Donor figures by 1-digit postal code regions ranged from n = 5,243 (region 9) to n = 19,661 (region 8). Simulations based on region-specific haplotype frequencies showed that donor recruitment in regions 0, 2, 3 and 4 (mainly located in the south-eastern part of Poland) resulted in an above-average increase of matching probabilities for Polish patients. Regions 1, 7, 8, 9 (mainly located in the northern part of Poland) showed an opposite behavior. However, HLA frequency differences between regions were generally small. A strong indication for regionally focused donor recruitment efforts can, therefore, not be derived from our analyses. Results of haplotype frequency estimations showed sample size effects even for sizes between n≈5,000 and n≈20,000. This observation deserves further attention as most published haplotype frequency estimations are based on much smaller samples.

MeSH terms

  • Alleles
  • Female
  • Gene Frequency
  • Genetic Variation*
  • Geography
  • HLA Antigens / genetics*
  • HLA Antigens / immunology
  • Haplotypes
  • Histocompatibility Testing
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Poland
  • Registries
  • Stem Cells / immunology
  • Stem Cells / metabolism*
  • Tissue Donors*

Substances

  • HLA Antigens

Grants and funding

The authors have no support or funding to report.