Molecular Typing of HLA-E

Human leukocyte antigen-E (HLA-E) is a non-classical HLA class I gene that shows a limited degree of polymorphism compared to the classical HLA genes. The HLA-E molecule can bind peptides derived from the leader sequence of various HLA class I alleles and some viral homologues, including CMV. The HLA-E peptide complex can act as a ligand for the CD94/NKG2 receptors expressed on the surface of natural killer cells and T cell subsets. Differences in expression levels between the different HLA-E alleles have been reported and a role for HLA-E polymorphism in stem cell transplantation has been postulated. This chapter focuses on routine technologies for HLA-E typing: the sequence-specific primer-PCR method that uses sequence-specific primers, the PCR sequence-specific oligonucleotides Luminex method, using sequence-specific probes attached to beads and the sequencing-based typing method, where sequencing of the alleles is performed.