The Human Leukocyte Antigen-G 14-basepair polymorphism correlates with graft-versus-host disease in unrelated bone marrow transplantation for thalassaemia

The presence of the 14-bp insertion polymorphism of the human leucocyte antigen (HLA)-G gene (HLA-G) promotes immune tolerance through increased synthesis of HLA-G molecules. We investigated this polymorphism in a large cohort of 53 thalassaemia patients transplanted from an unrelated donor. Sixteen patients (30·2%) homozygous for the 14-bp deletion had a higher risk of developing acute graft-versus-host disease (aGvHD) than patients homozygous for the 14-bp insertion (−14-bp/−14-bp vs +14-bp/+14-bp: Relative Risk = 15·0; 95% confidence interval 1·59–141·24; P = 0·008). Therefore, the 14-bp polymorphism could be an important predictive factor for aGvHD following bone marrow transplantation.