HLA-DRB1, DQA1 and DQB1 Alleles and Haplotypes Frequencies in Iranian Healthy Adult Responders and Non-Responders to Recombinant Hepatitis B Vaccine

individuals receiving the hepatitis B (HB) vaccine do not produce protective levels of anti-HB antibody, a phenomenon which could be linked to certain human leukocyte an-tigen (HLA) class-II alleles or haplotypes. Objectives: The present study was under-taken to determine the frequency of HLA class-II alleles in Iranian healthy adult re-sponders and non-responders to HB vaccine. Methods: Twelve non-responders (anti-HBs antibody<10 IU/L) and 46 responders (anti-HBs antibody>100 IU/L) were tissue typed for HLA class-II. HLA-DRB1, DQB1 and DQA1 alleles were determined using polymerase chain reaction based on sequence specific primers (PCR-SSP) technique. Accessibility to excess amount of genomic DNA was possible using Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-transformed B-cells established from all vaccinees. Results: Our results demon-strated increased frequencies of HLA- DRB1*07, DRB1*03, DRB1*04, DQB1*0201, DQA1*0201 alleles and HLA- DRB1*07/DQB1*0201/DQA1*0201 and DRB1*04/DQB1*0302/DQA1*03011 haplotypes in the non-responder group. Com-parison between responders and non-responders revealed only a significant difference for DQB1*0201 allele (p<0.05). Conclusion: These findings confirm the association of certain HLA alleles and haplotypes with the lack of antibody response to HB vaccine in an Iranian population