Immunogenetics: Advances and Education

The objective underlying this book is educational, aiming to advance the development of immunogenetics/histocompatibility and to encourage the international collaboration that is so necessary for the international transplant programme and for research into the genetic predisposition to develop diseases associated with genes in the HLA complex. §The revolution in high-tech molecular biological genome technology has given rise to a prodigious development of molecular techniques for the polymorphism analysis of HLA and the subsequent application of research results in clinical practice. Many new alleles have been discovered and different mechanisms have been shown to generate these new alleles. This has improved both diagnostic efficiency and increased the success of transplantation. §Topics covered include HLA associated susceptibility to autoimmune disease. Strategies and efficiency of BMDW and benefit of collaboration. Optimum selection of unrelated bone marrow donor and extension of the pool of suitable donors by determination of possible mismatches. Identification of sibling pairs using microsatellites across the HLA region. HLA in kidney transplantation. Eurotransplant facts and figures. HLA typing from serology to molecular biology. Evolution of DNA based typing in HLA laboratories. HLA and paternity testing.