Association of HLA-DR polymorphisms and Febrile Non-Hemolytic Transfusion Reaction in multi-transfused thalassemia patients

β-thalassemia patients need regular blood. Regular blood transfusion has side effects. The most common of which is FNHTR. One of the causes of FNHTR is the antibody production against HLA-II antigens. HLA polymorphism vary in different communities and may affect the susceptibility or resistance to FNHTR. In this study, the relationship between HLA-DR polymorphisms and development of FNHTR in multi-transfused thalassemia patients in Tehran province was investigated.

In this cross-sectional study, 88 ß-thalassemia major and intermediate patients with average age 38.63 ± 11.28 with 35 being male (39.8%) and 53 female (60.2%) were enrolled and for better results, 70 thalassemia patients with FNHTR were compared with 18 thalassemia patients without FNHTR. HLA-DR genotype was investigated by PCR-SSP method. Data were analyzed by chi-squared and pearson test.

The results of PCR-SSP showed that HLA-DRB1*11 allele had the highest prevalence (26.7%) in the total study population. No statistically significant correlation between HLA-DR alleles and development of FNHTR was observed. Although HLA-DRB1*10 as a possible genetic marker may play a role in protecting against FNHTR (p = 0.049).

Conclusions :

In this study, no significant association between HLA-DR allele frequency and FNHTR was found. Although alleles HLA-DRB1*03, HLA-DRB1*10, HLA-DRB1*13 and HLA-DRB1*16 have higher prevalence in the no FNHTR group, but only in the case of HLA-DRB1*10 this relationship was significant and was considered as possible genetic markers against development of FNHTR. Further studies investigating HLA-II allelic levels in larger populations may provide more deep data on this association.