HLA typing is most commonly used to find out which people will be able to provide tissue donations that allow for the safest transplants (solid organ or hematopoietic stem cell transplantation). HLA typing is performed on all potential tissue recipients and donors, including relatives of the transplant recipient who wish to donate.

Volunteers can also have their HLA type included in a bone marrow registry for stem cell transplantation. The test is also done on terminally ill or recently deceased people who are organ donors.

The best possible donors have HLAs that closely match the HLA patterns of the recipient. This makes it more likely that a transplant will be successful. A good match also lowers the risk of complications after the transplant, such as organ rejection.

Some people also need to have a component of HLA typing performed after a transplant to see if their body is producing antibodies against the transplanted tissue. This can be a sign of organ rejection and means the transplant might not be a success.

Transplantations :

Monitoring organ transplantation : new methodologies offer to measure the absolute concentration of donor-derived cfDNA (ddcfDNA) with as a biomarker for graft injury. It has demonstrated utility in the early detection of allograft injury and assistance with clinical decision-making regarding allograft biopsy and treatment initiation.

Monitoring bone marrow transplantations : chimerism analysis is a well-established method for monitoring the state of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) over time by analyzing peripheral blood or bone marrow samples of the recipient in several malignant and non-malignant hematologic diseases. From a clinical point of view, a continuous monitoring is fundamental for an effective early therapeutic intervention Early detection of transplant rejection or disease relapse is critical for the adjustment of a transplant recipient’s treatment regime, graft survival and higher quality of life for patients.