Polymorphisms of the HLA-DQ subregion.

The HLA-D region (analogous to the I region of the mouse H-2 complex gene) is now known to contain three subregions, one of which is HLA-DQ. The products of the HLA-DQ subregion are important in T-cell recognition. Three DQ specificities have been recognized by the International Histocompatibility Workshop but additional polymorphisms of DQ gene products have also been described. In this article, Massimo Trucco and René Duquesnoy discuss the relationship between serologically, cellularly and molecularly defined polymorphisms of HLA-DQ.