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S G Marsh

Publications and source records attributed to S G Marsh.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

A new MICA allele with ten alanine residues in the exon 5 microsatellite.

The MICA and MICB genes code for protein products that have structural similarities to major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I genes. These genes are upregulated by heat stress. They have been shown to interact with a common receptor (NKG2D/DAP10) on gammadelta T cells, CD8+ T cells and natural killer (NK) cells. The MICA gene has an expressed microsatellite, GCT, within the exon 5 which encodes for alanine. So far, four different repetitions of this short tandem have been reported. Also one non-synonymous, one synonymous substitution and a 1-bp insertion within this region have also been described. An association of Behcet's disease with the microsatellite A9 has been reported. Here we report a novel allele with 10 GCT repetitions (A10) which was detected by reference strand mediated conformation analysis and confirmed by DNA sequencing.

Alanine↗

IMGT/HLA database--a sequence database for the human major histocompatibility complex.

The IMGT/HLA Database is a specialist database for sequences of the human major histocompatibility (MHC) system. It includes all the HLA sequences officially recognised and named by the WHO Nomenclature Committee for Factors of the HLA System. The database provides users with online tools and facilities for the retrieval and analysis of these sequences. These include allele reports, alignment tools and a detailed database of all source cells. The online IMGT/HLA submission tool allows the submission of both new and confirmatory allele sequences directly to the WHO Nomenclature Committee for Factors of the HLA System. The latest version (release 1.4.1, November 1999) contains 1,015 HLA alleles from over 2,270 component sequences derived from the EMBL/GenBank/DDBJ databases. From its release in December 1998 until December 1999 the IMGT/HLA website received approximately 100,000 hits. The database currently focuses on the human major histocompatibility complex but will be used as a model system to provide specialist databases for the MHC sequences of other species.

Base Sequence↗

A new allele, HLA-B*1555, identified in an African patient awaiting bone marrow transplantation.

Human HLA genes exhibit extreme polymorphism, the extent of which is emphasised by the identification of an ever increasing number of new alleles by DNA-based typing strategies. Here we describe a novel allele, belonging to the HLA-B*15 group, which was identified in an African patient awaiting a bone marrow transplant This individual was shown to exhibit two HLA-B alleles, B*5301 and a new allele which has been named B*1555. B*1555 differs from B*1531 in exon 3 by a single nucleotide substitution. This substitution results in a change in the amino acid residue at position 97, which is located within the beta-pleated sheet region of the HLA molecule.

Africa↗

Reference strand mediated conformation analysis resolves HLA-DRB1 typing ambiguities when matching for unrelated bone marrow transplantation.

We show here the use of reference strand mediated conformation analysis (RSCA) to unambiguously resolve the HLA-DRB1 typing of two individuals which were selected as potential unrelated donors for bone marrow transplantation (BMT). In the first case, both sequence-specific primer (SSP) amplification and sequence-specific oligonucleotide probing (SSO), routinely used in different tissue typing laboratories gave, for the two unrelated donors, the same ambiguous typing of HLA-DRB1*04011+*0403 or DRB1*0407+*0413. In this case sequence-based typing (SBT) was not the method of choice to resolve the situation, due to the sequence ambiguities of these two given combinations. RSCA of both samples, using homozygous typing cells (HTCs) for DRB1*04011, *0403 and *0407 as internal controls, gave the unambiguous result that both donors were HLA-DRB1*04011+*0403. In the second case, a donor was typed as DRB1*1102+1103 by SSP, while SSO excluded the DRB1*1102 allele. The patient was unambiguously typed as DRB1*1101+1103 by both techniques. RSCA, using DNA from reference cell lines as internal controls, gave the unambiguous typing that the donor was DRB1*1103 homozygous.

Alleles↗

Going back to the roots: effective utilisation of HLA typing information for bone marrow registries requires full knowledge of the DNA sequences of the oligonucleotide reagents used in the testing.

Information obtained by DNA-based HLA typing assays is more detailed and of higher quality than that obtained by conventional serological techniques. Nevertheless, it is common for data acquired in this way to be presented in the more familiar serological format. In many cases this representation can lead to significant loss of information, which may only become apparent at a later time, with the discovery of novel allele sequences. DNA-based typing methods, such as sequence-specific oligonucleotide probing (SSOP) or sequence-specific priming (SSP) generate fragmentary sequence data which is information rich. An alternative to assigning allele names to these fragments is to simply store the sequence data itself without interpretation. Bone marrow donor repositories can then be searched directly with sequence information, which though complex is more complete, rather than searching by derivative allele names.

Base Sequence↗