[Progress in genomic analysis of the human leukocyte antigen]

Since the introduction of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), matching the HLA with the donor and recipient is the most important factor in improving the outcome. Currently, we are getting familiar with cord blood transplantation and haplo-identical stem cell transplantation which are beyond HLA disparity. However, even in this era, the significance of HLA for HSCT has not changed, and new technology provides knowledge regarding HLA and HSCT. Usually, HLA typing methods only estimate the allele, but next generation sequencing (NGS) can detect the whole sequence of the HLA gene. Moreover, because the NGS method can be used for quantitative analysis, we can also detect 6pLOH in some disease conditions. Furthermore, a previous report showed that HLA epitope mismatch also influenced the outcome of HSCT. This review shows this new technology and findings on HLA and HSCT.