High-resolution human leukocyte antigen allele and haplotype frequencies of the Polish population based on 20,653 stem cell donors

We present high-resolution allele and haplotype frequency (HF) estimations of the Polish population based on more than 20,000 registered stem cell donors. Sequencing-based donor human leukocyte antigen (HLA) typing led to unambiguous typing results in most cases (between 94.3% for HLA-DRB1 and 96.9% for HLA-B). HF estimations were carried out with a new, validated implementation of the expectation-maximization algorithm that allowed processing of data with ambiguities. Our results confirm several earlier results, for example, the relative commonness of the haplotype A*25:01g, B*18:01g, C*12:03, DRB1*04:01 in the Polish population. Because of the large sample size, we were able to obtain results of unprecedented accuracy. The estimated population-specific HFs were then used to analyze questions of strategic donor registry planning. Simulated matching probabilities by donor file size suggest that there is a need for intense donor recruitment efforts in Poland despite the large German donor registry and the genetic relatedness of both populations. Based on the current German registry size of approximately 4 million donors, the recruitment of 100,000 Polish donors would produce a stronger increase in matching probabilities for Polish patients than the recruitment of 3.3 million additional German donors. (C) 2011 American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.