Lack of association between childhood common acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and an HLA-C locus dimorphism influencing the specificity of natural killer cells.

Previous serological studies documenting an association between acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) and HLA-Cw antigens suggested that the HLA-C locus might influence susceptibility to ALL. However, associations with more than one Cw antigen suggest that polymorphic variants shared by more than Cw allele could be involved. Recent studies have shown that the HLA-C locus encodes two ligands (NK1 and NK2) recognized by receptors on natural killer (NK) cells. HLA-Cw alleles encoding these ligands are dimorphic, dependent on whether they encode one or other NK ligand. To determine whether susceptibility to the common (CD10+) form of childhood ALL (c-ALL) is associated with NK1 or NK2, we carried out a molecular analysis of 94 childhood c-ALL patients and 136 infant controls. We found no difference in the frequency of NK1 and NK2 alleles, phenotypes or genotypes between the patients and controls, suggesting that this does not explain the role of the HLA-C locus in susceptibility to childhood c-ALL.