Clinical significance of HLA-E genotype and surface/soluble expression levels between healthy individuals and patients with acute leukemia

Human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-E is a nonclassical HLA molecule with limited polymorphisms. Genotype frequency and expression of HLA-E were examined here for the first time in acute leukemia patients and healthy controls. The frequency of HLA-E*01:03/*01:03 individuals was significantly higher (p = .008, OR = 1.845), while the frequency of HLA-E*01:01/*01:01 individuals was much lower in the patient group (p = .002, OR = .363) than in control group. The surface expression on HLA-E*01:03/*01:03 individuals was found to be significantly higher than on HLA-E*01:01/*01:01 individuals in both of acute leukemia and control groups, but no significant difference was observed between the corresponding genotypes in two groups. However, the level of expression of soluble HLA-E is significantly higher in patients than in the control group, but there was no genotype-specific expression in either group. These findings indicate that soluble HLA-E secretion and HLA-E*01:03/*01:03 genotype that brings higher surface expression might play important roles in the mechanisms underlying tumor escape in acute leukemia.