HLA typing by sequencing

Obviously, only the complete sequencing of all donor and recipient HLA-alleles gives certainty on the degree of compatibility. Hower, for practical reasons only the most polymorphic exons are sequenced (exon 2 (270 bp) for class II, and exons 2+3 (540 bp) for class I genes). A number of sequencing protocols have been published so far. These are based either on locus-specific PCR and sequencing both alleles at once, which is faster but implies possible ambiguities in sequence interpretation, or on group-specific PCR allowing to separate the alleles which is more time-consuming but avoids the ambiguities.

Protocols validated through the 13th International Histocompatibility Workshop are available at the following web site :

Obviously, the typing strategy depends on the type of transplantation (HSCT or organ) and the HSCT donor (related versus unrelated).