Genetics of histocompatibility.

Molecular studies of the major histocompatibility complex region, its genes, and its products are progressing in a number of different directions, and this progress is becoming of increasing interest not only to immunologists but also to geneticists and clinicians. Here I select only certain aspects of this field, stressing the biological importance of a few recent developments. This review concentrates on two topics of clinical importance and where important recent progress is reported: the "revolution" of HLA genotyping for histocompatibility matching in transplantation and the elucidation of a genetic disease of gene regulation, primary major histocompatibility complex class II deficiency (or bare lymphocyte syndrome).