The first HLA anthropological study in the Kuwaiti population

HLA antigens of the Kuwaiti population are not as well characterized as those of other international ethnic groups. We present results for HLA typing of Kuwaiti individuals using commercial Biotest sera. Six hundred and seventy one Kuwaiti were typed for HLA-A, -B, -C antigens and 399 were typed for HLA-DR, -DQ antigens. Antigen frequency and gene frequency were computed for each phenotype observed. The antigens with the highest frequencies were HLA-A2, A1 and A3; B5, B12 and B7; Cw-4 and Cw-1; DR52, DR5, DR3 and DR7; DQ1 and DQ2. HLA haplotypes with strong linkage disequilibrium and characteristic of Kuwaiti population are A2-B5, A1-B8, B7-DR7 and B8-DR3. A comparison study with other populations is presented.