AJRI 2001; 45:168 – 173
Printed in Ireland - all rights resered.
Polymorphism of Human Leukocyte Antigen-E
Gene in the Japanese Population with or without
Recurrent Abortion
TAKAO KANAI, TOMOYUKI FUJII, NAOTO KEICHO, KATSUSHI TOKUNAGA, TAKAHIRO YAMASHITA,
HIRONOBU HYODO, AKINORI MIKI, NOBUYA UNNO, SHIRO KOZUMA, AND YUJI TAKETANI
Kanai T, Fujii T, Keicho N, Tokunaga K, Yamashita T, Hyodo H, Miki A, Unno N,
Kozuma S, Taketani Y. Polymorphism of human leukocyte antigen -E gene in the
Japanese population with or without recurrent abortion. AJRI 2001; 45:168 – 173 ©
Munksgaard, Copenhagen
PROBLEM: The aim of this study was to investigate the gene frequencies and shared
alleles of human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-E gene in Japanese couples with or without
recurrent abortion.
METHOD OF STUDY: Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-single strand conformation
polymorphism (SSCP) analysis was carried out to detect polymorphism in exon 3 of
the HLA-E gene in 30 Japanese couples with recurrent abortion and 38 normal
Japanese couples with proven fertility.
RESULTS: No point mutation was detected in exon 3 of HLA-E in both recurrent
aborters and normal controls. HLA-EG and HLA-ER alleles were detected with
frequencies of 66.7% and 33.3% in couples with recurrent abortion and 69.2% and
30.8% in normal couples, respectively. The gene frequency of HLA-EG was higher
than that of HLA-ER, which is contrary to that found in Caucasian, African–Amer-
ican and Hispanic people but similar to Chinese people. The frequency of each allele
was not significantly different between recurrent aborters and normal controls. The
number of shared alleles between each couple with recurrent abortion is not signifi-
cantly different from that with normal controls.
CONCLUSION: Allele frequencies of HLA-E were suggested to be different in Asian
people from those in other ethnic people. In light of no specific distribution pattern in
recurrent aborters, HLA-E polymorphism does not seem to play a role in the
pathogenesis of recurrent abortion.
Key words:
Human leukocyte antigen-E,
polymorphism, recurrent
abortion, trophoblast
TAKAO KANAI
TOMOYUKI FUJII
TAKAHIRO YAMASHITA
HIRONOBU HYODO
AKINORI MIKI
NOBUYA UNNO
SHIRO KOZUMA
YUJI TAKETANI
Department of Obstetrics and
Gynecology, Faculty of
Medicine, University of Tokyo,
Tokyo, Japan
NAOTO KEICHO
Department of Respiratory
Medicine, Faculty of Medicine,
University of Tokyo, Tokyo,
Japan
KATSUSHI TOKUNAGA
Department of Human Genetics,
Graduate School of Medicine,
University of Tokyo, Tokyo,
Japan
Address reprint requests to
Tomoyuki Fujii, Department of
Obstetrics and Gynecology,
Faculty of Medicine, University
of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo,
Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8655
Japan.
E-mail: fujiit-tky@umin.ac.jp
Submitted May 30, 2000; revised
July 24, 2000; accepted July 28,
2000.
© MUNKSGAARD, COPENHAGEN