Frequencies of HLA-A and HLA-B alleles in a Mexico City mestizo sample

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the frequency of HLA-A and HLA-B antigens in a sample of the Mexico City Mestizo population. Previous similar studies were done by other authors in nonrelated individuals, while the present investigation was performed in families (parents and offspring), and therefore, a more accurate estimate of gene and haplotype frequencies was obtained. The predominant antigens in descending order are A2, A24, and A28 at the A locus, whereas B39 and B35 are at the B locus, all with gene frequencies above 0.1. As expected, the two more frequent haplotypes were A2-B16 and A2-B35 (considering main specificities), both with frequencies of 0.056. Seven of the 18 significant delta values of the haplotypes (observed vs. expected) remained significant after correcting for the number of comparisons, indicating the presence of linkage disequilibrium between the HLA-A and HLA-B regions. However, only A1-B8 and A19-B13 were found to be in disequilibrium in another Mexico City Mestizo sample which had very similar HLA-A and HLA-B allele frequencies to those in the present survey, suggesting that the biological significance of the other associations is rather doubtful. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 9:1-5 © 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.