Does minor histocompatibility antigen HA‐1 disparity affect the occurrence of graft‐versus‐host disease in tunisian recipients of hematopoietic stem cells?

INTRODUCTION: Minor histocompatibility antigen HA‐1 (MiHAg‐HA‐1) disparity between a patient and his or her human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genoidentical donor has been widely associated with an increased risk of graft‐versus‐host disease following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. OBJECTIVE: To examine the effect of HA‐1 disparity on the incidence of both acute and chronic graft‐versus‐host disease in Tunisian recipients of hematopoietic stem cells. METHODS: A total of 60 patients and their 60 respective sibling hematopoietic stem cell donors were enrolled in this study. All patients prophylactically received cyclosporine A and/or methotrexate for graft‐versus‐host disease. An HA‐1 genotyping assay was performed with the SSP‐PCR method, and HLA‐A*0201‐ and/or HLA‐A*0206‐positive samples were identified using the Luminex HLA typing method. RESULTS: The Luminex HLA typing assay showed that 54 patients were positive for either the HLA‐A*0201 or HLA‐A*0206 alleles. Among these cases, six pairs were mismatched for MiHAg‐HA‐1. Both acute and chronic graft‐versus‐host disease occurred in four mismatched patients (Fisher's p‐values were 0.044 and 0.170, respectively). A univariate logistic regression model analysis showed that only acute graft‐versus‐host disease may be affected by recipient MiHAg‐HA‐1 disparity (p: 0.041, OR: 6.727), while chronic graft‐versus‐host disease correlates with both age and recipient/donor sex mismatch (p: 0.014, OR: 8.556 and p: 0.033, OR: 8.664, respectively). CONCLUSION: Our findings support previously reported data suggesting a significant association between HA‐1 disparity and the risk of acute graft‐versus‐host disease following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.