genotyping of human platelet antigen-1 to -5 and -15 by polymerase chain reaction with sequence-specific primers (pcr-ssp) and real-time pcr in azeri blood donors

Human platelet antigens (hpas) are glycoproteins on the platelet surface that a singlenucleotide mutation in the coding region gene could lead to the variation of different hpapolymorphisms. these antigens have shown variation among different races and may triggerimmune responses during blood transfusion and pregnancy. genotyping of hpas is useful formanaging these reactions and establishing a platelet registry to decrease platelet transfusionreactions. this study aimed to compare allelic and genotype frequencies of human plateletantigens in the azeri ethnicity by taqman real-time and polymerase chain reaction withsequence-specific primers (pcr-ssp) methods.dna was extracted from the whole blood of 100 azeri blood donors in the ardabil bloodtransfusion center. genotyping of hpa-1 to -5 and -15 was performed by taqman real-timepcr, and pcr-ssp and consistency of results were evaluated.the results of pcr-ssp and taqman real-time pcr showed complete consistency. the allelefrequencies were 91.5% and 8.5% for hpa-1a and -1b; 88% and 12% for hpa-2a and -2b; 58%and 42 % for hpa-3a and -3b; 100% for hpa-4a; 91% and 9% for hpa-5a and -5b; 56.5% and43.5% for hpa-15a and -15b alleles.not incompatibility was detected in hpas genotyping by pcr-ssp and taqman real-timepcr so that real-time pcr can be used as a robust and quick method for hpa genotyping. wefound differences between azeri blood donors and previously reported hpas alleles’ frequency inother ethnicities in the country. this fact highlights the need for a platelet registry to recruit platelet donors from different ethnicities and increase the number of donors by using faster methods.