Human Leukocyte Antigen: A review Article

Abstract

Within the last 20 years, the rapidly developing field of study has produced the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) or tissue types. Many researchers recognized the presence of a complicated sequence of transplantation antigens early in the study. Still, it was commonly assumed that these antigens would not be well-defined even in this century. Nonetheless, in the last two decades, an international nomenclature committee has discovered 124 distinct HLA antigens determined by at least seven tightly linked genes on the short arm of chromosome 6 and subsequently agreed upon. The area has evolved swiftly thanks to extensive international collaboration spurred by the potential therapeutic application of these antigens in clinical Transplantation. During this time, nine worldwide histocompatibility workshops were organized. The HLA antigens were associated with disease susceptibility to a greater extent than any other known genetic marker in man, which was of primary clinical importance in Transplantation and great basic interest in human genetics and anthropology. An unexpected bonus was discovering that HLA antigens are associated with disease susceptibility to a greater extent than any other known genetic marker in man.