HLA polymorphism in Moroccan Jewry

Anat Roitberg-Tambur, Adam Friedmann, Campbell S. Witt, Shlomit Eisenberg, W. Aubrey Soskolne, Lior Shapira, Michael N. Sela, Shoshana Battat, Cilly Safirman, Leontina Sherman, Isaac Cohen, Chaim Brautbar*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

The Moroccan Jewish community living in Israel shows a relatively large genetic distance from other North African Jewish communities. In this work the polymorphism of HLA class I and class II determinants, as defined by serology and oligotyping, is analyzed in 113 healthy unrelated Jews of Moroccan stock. The class I antigens HLA-A1, -B44, and -Cw7 showed the highest frequency, while the most prevalent class II variants were DRB1*0701 and *1104, DQA1*0501, and DQB1*0201 and *0301. HLA A1-B13-DR7, A2-B51-DR10, and A1-B44-DR13 were the most typical three-locus haplotypes. Although the antigen frequency distribution of the Moroccan Jews falls within the Caucasian diversity range, this community has a unique pattern in terms of antigen, gene, and haplotype frequencies. Thus, in the Moroccan Jews DRB1*1305, an allele believed to be the result of a recombination event between DRB1*1301-1302 and DRB1*1101, is represented to a much larger extent than in all the other population groups studied at the 11th IHWS. This allele may therefore be a typical Jewish variant. A particular finding was the high frequencies of HLA-B13, B52, and DR10, alleles common among some Oriental populations. The answer to this enigmatic phenomenon probably must be sought in the tortuous history of this community.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)61-67
Number of pages7
JournalHuman Immunology
Volume40
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - May 1994

Funding

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors thank Mr G Kasslr for the computerized data retrieval We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Concern Foundation of Los Angeles, USA, and of the Society of Research Associates of the Lautenberg Center for General and Tumor Immunology, Jerusalem, Israel This study was supported, in part, by the Chief Scientist's Office of the Ministry of Health grant 9110-037

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Immunology and Allergy
  • Immunology

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