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Title: NOMENCLATURE FOR FACTORS OF THE SLA SYSTEM, UPDATE 2008

Author
item HO, CHAK-SUM - UNIV MI, ANN ARBOR, MI
item Lunney, Joan
item ANDO, ASAKO - TOKAI UNIV SCH MED, JAPAN
item ROGEL-GAILLARD, CLAIRE - INRA, DGA, FRANCE
item LEE, JUN-HEON - CHUNGNAM NAT UNIV, KOREA
item SCHOOK, LAWRENCE - UNIV IL, URBANA, IL
item SMITH, DOUGLAS - UNIV MI, ANN ARBOR, MI

Submitted to: Tissue Antigen
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/3/2009
Publication Date: 1/3/2009
Citation: Ho, C., Lunney, J.K., Ando, A., Rogel-Gaillard, C., Lee, J., Schook, L.B., Smith, D.M. 2009. Nomenclature for factors of the SLA system, update 2008. Tissue Antigens. 73:307-315.

Interpretive Summary: The body’s immune system is alerted to foreign antigens through cell surface molecules, the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) antigens. For swine the MHC is called the Swine Leukocyte Antigen (SLA) complex. Effective vaccine and infectious disease responses require that foreign or vaccine antigens be recognized by the immune system. For this to happen vaccine or microbial antigens must be processed and presented to the immune system by host proteins, the MHC or SLA antigens which are very genetically polymorphic. This manuscript provides an update on the genetic complexity of class I and class II SLA antigens. Sets of SLA class I and class II genes are termed haplotypes. Swine with different SLA class I and class II haplotypes have been shown to develop different, SLA dependent titers of complement and antibodies to defined antigens and vaccines and different responses to infectious diseases. This systematic nomenclature for SLA class I and class II alleles is critical to the further development of research in swine immunology and disease research and for use of the swine as a transplantation model for humans and as xenotranplantation (cross-species) donor for humans. SLA matching is required for acceptance of bone marrow cell and solid organ allografts. This manuscript presents the updated nomenclature that swine researchers developed under the auspices of the International Society for Animal Genetics (ISAG) to systematize the nomenclature for the swine SLA class I and class II antigens. As a result of this report it is now verified that there are as many as 125 class I alleles and 164 class II alleles at any one SLA locus. This updated nomenclature allows investigators to communicate more easily about SLA alleles and haplotypes, particularly in outbred pigs, where there are few molecularly defined SLA haplotypes. Overall, such information will be very useful for understanding the genetic basis of disease resistance and for designing vaccines that produce effective protective immunity for infectious diseases in every pig.

Technical Abstract: This report summarizes the new swine leukocyte antigen (SLA) allele sequences and haplotypes designated by the SLA Nomenclature Committee of the International Society for Animal Genetics (ISAG). There have been 74 new SLA alleles, including 18 SLA-1 alleles, 11 SLA-2 alleles, six SLA-3 alleles, two SLA-6 alleles, one SLA-DRA allele, 20 SLA-DRB1 alleles, three SLA-DQA alleles and 13 SLA-DQB1 alleles. Twelve new SLA class I and four new class II haplotypes have also been designated. This is the first official update since the 2005 reports on the nomenclature for factors of the SLA class I and II system. This report also summarizes recent updates to the Immuno Polymorphism Database-Major Histocompatibility Complex (IPD-MHC) website (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/ipd/mhc/sla). All information has now been integrated to the SLA section of the IPD-MHC database which serves as the repository for maintaining a list of all recognized SLA genes and their allelic sequences.