Abstract

BACKGROUND: HLA typing analysis is important in renal transplant patients. OBJECTIVES: We made a plan to determine the most frequent HLA antigens in Iranian kidney transplant patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In a retrospective cross sectional study, HLA patterns were defined in 512 kidney transplant recipients (67 male and 33 female) from different transplant centers of Tehran, Iran between 2008 and 2011 by microcytotoxicity assay. RESULTS: The studies samples were of different ethnic groups of the Iranian kidney transplants. Considerable variations were observed in each HLA sub class. A2, A1, A3, A24 and A26 were the most frequent HLA-A antigens. Among HLA-B, the predominant antigens were B35; B13, B15, B13 and B18. The most frequent HLA-DR antigens were DR 4, DR11, DR1, DR3 and DR15. DQ1 showed the highest frequency and followed by DQ3 and DQ2. CONCLUSIONS: These results showed considerable heterogeneity in both HLA class I and class II antigens, which reflects recent admixture of this group with neighboring Middle East populations.