Immunogenetics, 2012 Methods and Applications in Clinical Practice Methods in Molecular Biology Series, Vol. 882

The HLA molecules are important regulators of the immune response through mediating antigen presentation and interaction between key immune mediating cells. They are also the major histocompatibility barriers to transplantation, which is the clinical paradigm of the self versus non self concept. It is now recognized that this diverse range of gene systems involved in the control of the immune response have been shown to be important in many aspects of clinical practice. As a result many new molecular and cellular methods have been developed for identifying these genes and their polymorphisms, and immunogenetic laboratories specializing in these methods have developed to support transplantation and other clinical programs. Immunogenetics: Methods and Applications in Clinical Practice focuses on methods for human clinical practice. The emphasis rests on those assays which are of established or potential clinical utility and are likely to be included in the repertoire of tests provided by a routine diagnostic and service laboratory. This volume also contains several review chapters of the MHC complex, the KIR complex, the human immunoglobulin allotypes, as well as reviews of the methods for the detection of alloreactive NK cells and the detection of HLA antibodies by solid phase assays.  Written in the successful Methods in Molecular Biology? series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible protocols, and notes on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls.

Authoritative and easily accessible, Immunogenetics: Methods and Applications in Clinical Practice seeks to serve both the immunogenetics community  and the wider scientific community with a collection of detailed information and helpful tips attained by many years of experience in the field.

The Major Histocompatibility Complex - A Paradigm for Studies of the Human Genome.- HLA Typing by SSO and SSP Methods.- Methods for Diagnostic HLA Typing in Disease Association and Drug Hypersensitivity.- HLA Typing Using Bead Based Methods.- HLA Typing by Direct DNA Sequencing.- Data Analysis of HLA Sequencing using Assign-SBT v3.6+ from Conexio.- Simple Methods for the Detection of HLA-G Variants in Coding and Non-Coding Regions.- Molecular Typing of HLA-E.- Molecular Analysis of Complement Component C4 Gene Copy Number.- Genotyping of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) by 5’ Nuclease Allelic Discrimination.- High Resolution MICA Genotyping by Sequence-Based Typing (SBT).- Standard Methods for the Management of Immunogenetic Data.- Analytical Methods for Immunogenetic Population Data.- Analytical Methods for Disease Association Studies with Immunogenetic Data.- Impact of HLA Matching and HLA Antibodies in Organ Transplantation: a Collaborative Transplant Study View.- Screening for Antibodies Against MICA by Luminex Flow Cytometry.- HLA Antibody Detection and Characterization by Solid Phase Immunoassays - Methods and Pitfalls.- Detection and Characterisation of Alloreactive T Cells.- Detection of Allo-HLA Crossreactivity by Viral Specific Memory T-Cell Clones using Single HLA Transfected K562 Cells.- Separation and Cryopreservation of Lymphocytes from Spleen and Lymph Node.- Crossmatching by Complement-Dependent Lymphocytotoxicity (CDC).- The Lymphocyte Crossmatch by Flow Cytometry for Kidney Transplantation.- Overview of the Killer Cell Immunoglobulin-Like Receptor (KIR) System.- KIR Typing by Non Sequencing Methods: Polymerase-Chain Reaction with Sequence-Specific Primers (PCR-SSP).- Killer Cell Immunoglobulin-Like Receptors (KIR) Typing by DNA Sequencing.- An Overview of Methods Required to Evaluate Donor NK Cell Alloreactivity for Haploidentical Haemopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation.- The Detection of NK Cell Alloreactivity by Flow CytometricCD107a Assay.- Clinical Production and Therapeutic Applications of Alloreactive Natural Killer Cells.- Minor Histocompatibility Antigen Typing by DNA Sequencing for Clinical Practice in Hematopoietic Stem-Cell Transplantation.- Donor Registries and Search Strategies.- Cytokine Gene Polymorphisms: Methods of Detection and Biological Significance.- IMGT® Tools for the Nucleotide Analysis of Immunoglobulin (IG) and T Cell Receptor (TR) V-(D)-J Repertoires, Polymorphisms, and IG Mutations: IMGT/V-QUEST and IMGT/HighV-QUEST for NGS.- IMGT/DomainGapAlign: the IMGT® Tool for the Analysis of IG, TR, MH, IgSF and MhSF Domain Amino Acid Polymorphism.- Human Gm, Km and Am Allotypes and their Molecular Characterization: a Remarkable Demonstration of Polymorphism.