ABSTRACT
This study was aimed to explore the distribution characteristics of the human platelet antigen (HPA) gene of human platelet donors and its polymorphism in Mudanjiang area of Heilongjiang Province in China, to determine platelet antigen system with clinical significance by judging the rate of incompatibility of HPA, as well as to establish a database of donors' HPA. The genotyping of 154 unrelated platelet donors was performed by means of PCR-SSP. The frequencies of gene and genotype were calculated and compared with that in other areas. The results showed that the genes 1a-17a of HPA-a were all expressed in the 154 healthy and unrelated platelet donors. Only genes 1b, 2b, 3b, 5b, 6b and 15b of HPA-b were expressed while genes 4b, 7b-14b, 16b were not expressed. Among the genotypes, aa homozygosity was predominant and HPA15 had the greatest heterozygosity, while HPA3 had lower heterozygosity. There were 23 combined types of HPA, 5 of them had a rate higher than 10%, and the frequencies of the other 18 were lower than 8%. HPA genotype frequencies showed a good consistency to Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. It is concluded that the distribution of the allele polymorphism of HPA1-HPA17 in Mudanjiang area has its own characteristics, compared with other areas and some countries, the local HPA genotype database of platelet donors is established in Mudanjiang area, which can provide the matching donors for clinical use with immunological significance.