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Updated: Jun 20, 2026

Quantification of Circulating Pig-Specific DNA in the Blood of a Xenotransplantation Model
Published on: September 22, 2020
[Cloning and bioinformatics analysis of SLA-DR genes in Hunan Daweizi pigs]
Yan Wang1, Xiao-wei Xing, Li-qun Xue
1Cell Transplantation & Gene Therapy Center, Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha 410013, China.
Aim:
To evaluate the potential of Daweizi pigs as xenotransplantation dnors from pigs to humans by analyzing the characteristics of SLA-DR genes in Hunan Daweizi pigs.
Methods:
SLA-DRA and SLA-DRB genes were amplified by RT-PCR, cloned into pUCm-T vectors, sequenced and analyzed through BLAST in NCBI and related software in ExPASY.
Results:
The SLA-DRA and SLA-DRB genes were 1 177 bp and 909 bp nucleotides in length, which contain opening reading frame (ORF) and encode 252 and 266 amino acids respectively. Comparing the SLA-DRA and SLA-DRB genes with their counterpart sequences of human, the homologies of amino acid sequences were 82% and 73% respectively. The amino acids in SLA DR alpha chain of Daweizi pigs from position 124 to 136, which bind to human CD4, showed only two differences with HLA DRA: a lle-Val change at position 127 and a Ser-Thr change at position 136. The amino acids in SLA DR beta chain of Daweizi pigs from position 134 to 148, which bind to human CD4, were identical with HLA-DRB. Further comparison with SLA sequences published in GenBank indicated that SLA-DRB gene found in Daweizi pigs has polymorphism while the homology of SLA-DRA gene is up to 100%.
Conclusion:
The cloned SLA-DRA and SLA-DRB in Hunan Daweizi pigs has high polymorphism with HLA-DRA and HLA-DRB in Human, indicates that Daweizi pigs have some advantages as xenotransplantation dnors from pigs to humans.
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