minor histocompatibility antigen ha-1 frequency and acute gvhd in some hematopoietic stem sell transplanted iranian patients

background: it is suggested that ha-1 mismatching among hematopoietic stem cell transplanted recipients-donors is associated with acute graft-versus-host disease (agvhd). so the aim of this study was to evaluate ha-1 frequency and examine the correlation between ha-1 disparity and gvhd patients who received transplantation from a hla-identical sibling. samples and methods: the dna was extracted from 30 pairs of hla-a2-positive iranian recipients-donors with gvhd i-iv and 25 pairs without gvhd. all the patients received hsct from hla-identical siblings. ha-1 was detected by ssp-pcr method. the ha-1 typing was performed using ssp method (ssp minor histocompatibility antigen primer sets). results: the frequency of ha-1r and ha-1h alleles in patients were 0.55 and 0.45 respectively, and showed no significant difference with these alleles frequency in donors 0.53 and 0.47 respectively (p>0.05). the ha-1 disparity was detected in 8 out of 55 donor/recipient pairs (14.5%). the agvhd (grades i-iv) occurred in 6 (75%) out of 8 patients but in spite of higher incidence of it in the group of patients with ha-1 incompatibility, it was not statistically significant. conclusion: in spite of higher frequency of ha-1 disparity in gvhd+ group our data did not reflect a significant association between the ha-1 disparity and risk of acute gvhd.