ABSTRACT
<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>To analyze the genetic polymorphism of HLA-Cw locus in Chinese Yi ethnic group by DNA typing for further study on its association with HIV infection and progression to AIDS.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A rapid genotyping method for HLA-Cw by PCR-SSP was set up. It combined twenty-six specific primers and one pair of internal control primer to form twenty-four one-step reactions for each sample. Totally 102 unrelated healthy Chinese Yi ethnic individuals were typed.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Twelve HLA-Cw alleles were detected in Chinese Yi ethnic group with HLA-Cw*01, Cw*07 and Cw*08 as the most common genes, which accounted for a frequency of 0.333 3, 0.250 0 and 0.176 5 respectively; four kinds of non-serologically defined HLA-Cw genes i.e. Cw*12, Cw*1301, Cw*14 and Cw*15 were found in this population. Hardy-Weinburg test showed that the genotype distribution observed was correspondent with the expected (chi2=65.983 1, df=66, P>0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>This study provides the data of HLA-Cw gene frequency in Chinese Yi ethnic group, which may contribute to research on anthropology, disease association and vaccine application. The result also confirmed that PCR-SSP was a reliable and fast method for HLA-Cw genotyping.</p>