Frequencies of HLA-E*01:01/*01:03 Alleles in an Iranian Healthy Population and Its Comparison with Hyperglycemia Patients

Background and Aims: The human leukocyte antigen-E (HLA-E) is a member of non-classical HLA class-I genes which is highly conserved through evolution. In general, so far 25 alleles of HLA-E have been described. However, the existence of only two allelic group; HLA-E*01:01 and HLA-E*01:03 have been demonstrated in all the populations. HLA-E*01:01 and HLA-E*01:03 differ only at codon 107 of exon 3. The aim of this study was to survey on the frequency of HLA-E alleles; HLA-E*01:01 and HLA-E*01:03 in healthy and high blood sugar subjects. Materials and Methods: Genomic DNA was extracted from the whole blood of 137 randomly selected healthy individuals and 86 patients with high blood sugar by using salting-out method. HLA-E*01:01 and HLA-E*01:03 alleles were determined by polymerase chain reaction sequence-specific primers. To overcome the ambiguity of some results, polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism method saw used. Finally, the nucleotide sequence of a limited number of polymerase chain reaction products was determined. Results: In healthy subjects, the allelic frequency of HLA-E*01:01 and HLA-E*01:03 were 48.9% and 51.1%, respectively. In high blood sugar subjects, the allelic frequency of HLA-E*01:01 and HLA-E*01:03 were 50.6% and 49.4%, respectively. The dominant allele in the healthy subjects was HLA-E*01:03 and in high blood sugar group was HLA-E*01:01 without significant differences for HLA-E*01:01 and HLA-E*01:03 frequencies in high blood sugar group. Conclusions: Our results about the frequencies of HLA-E*01:01 and HLA-E*01:03 alleles in Iranian population showed similarities with French and Korean populations.