I urgently need to know the importance of HLA DRB 3, 4 and 5 typing before a bone marrow transplant.

These are class II major histocompatibility antigens present on various white blood cells and involved in immune function. Like class I antigens that are found on nearly all cells in the body, these class II antigens can play a role in rejection of the graft or graft versus host disease when there is enough of a mismatch between donor and recipient.

double post

That's fine, got me to read twice;) However, I know about the three, but I'm still abit confused as to why these three, and not DRB 1. Or is it simply because DRB 3, 4 and 5 are typed with a different analysis then DRB1?

As you probably realized, I'm abit new to this, so what I've done so far is to type these three with PCR SSP and SSO, for then to make a comparison of the two methods and validate SSO for further use at our lab.

If you have any good info..:) please let me know, and thank you

OK, I understand your question a little better now. It is hard sometime to know from what point of view a question is coming from without a lot of detail.

First off, I'm no expert on HLA antigens and alleles. They make my head spin. Hopefully someone else can add to what I have to say.

My limited understanding is that basic testing is usually for HLA- A, B ,C and DRB1. I don't know if research has been done on the effects of DRB 3-5 mismatching on outcome. I think if more than one potential donor is available then they may try and match DQ, DP and these DR 3-5 alleles to further match the tissues.

Is this any help?

Hey, I see you're point and I guess you are right.. However a question arise when I read it.. Can DR polymofisme have something to do with why we type for these and not DQ and DP? As I have understood it, Dr has so many variations compared to the other two.

Does this make any sense? Are there other suggestions as to what I should look at?