Abstract
To confirm that the genes of the Japanese are more homozygous in terms of MHC than those of people in other countries, we evaluated the data concerning HLA antigens from the 11th HLA Conference and those from our own study. This study consisted of 4, 166 Japanese and 7, 717 non-Japanese who were examined for HLA antigens. The incidence of heterozygotes at all HLA class I and II loci in Japanese and in non-Japanese was 103% and 24.0%, respectively, whereas that of homozygotes was 40.5% and 27.5%, respectively. Our results led to the conclusion that Japanese individuals are more homozygous than foreigners, resulting in different incidences of both benign and malignant diseases, different responses to both medical and surgical therapy, and different immune responses to viral and bacterial infection. For that reason, social prevention and individualized therapy is important in Japanese medical care.
