Studies on an isolated West Indies population: I. Analysis of HLA genotypes

The transmission of HLA genes was studied in an isolated population of French origin on the lesser Antilles islands in the West Indies. The study of 74 unrelated individuals, 44 of whom were genotyped, was carried out for the alleles of HLA loci: A, B, C and Bf (proactivator factor of properdin). As a result of the founder effect and the inbreeding process, the HLA haplotypes were noted to be less polymorphic than in a French continental population. Two haplotypes: A2, Cw5, B12, BfS and A3, C-, B14, BfF represent 24% of the observed haplotypes, and only 2% of the reference haplotypes in France. No significant excess or deficit of homozygotes was observed at the A and B loci.