COMPARISON OF THE HAPLOTYPES OF THE MAJOR HISTOCOMPATIBILITY COMPLEX IN THE RAT: V. A SEROLOGICAL, GENETIC AND NUMERICAL STUDY OF THE RT1.A REGION ANTIGENS

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The classification of the RT1.A phenotypes of a large number of inbred and congenic strains of rats, including those prototypic for all of the known RT1.A phenotypes, was done by examining the reactivity of a variety of unabsorbed antisera with cells of the different strains. The data were analyzed by the techniques of numerical taxonomy without reference to the previous classification by the classical serological methods. The most effective way of analyzing the data was the use of the Jaccard correlation coefficient and the average linkage method of statistical analysis. RT2 antigens must be matched in the donor and recipient pair used to raise the anti-RT1 (MHC [major histocompatibility complex]) antiserum or spurious typing results can occur due to the presence of anti-RT2 antibodies. Using anti-RT1 antisera raised in RT2 compatible pairs of rats, the classification of inbred and congenic strains into the RT1.A phenotypes on the basis of classical serological studies was confirmed. Two groups of closely related RT1.A phenytopes were found (a, f, d and b, m). The AUG and PVG strains, both of which carry the RT1.Ac phenotype, were quite distantly related on the basis of this taxonomic analysis and the RT1.Ag and RT1.An phenotypes were the most distantly related compared to all of the other rat strains and to each other. The RT1 polymorphism of the rat is very limited, especially in respect to that observed in mice and humans.