Editorial International Cooperation in the Asian-Panoceanian Region: The Fourth Asia-Oceania Histocompatibility Workshop

The AsIan-PanoceanIan Hlstocompanbfllty Confer- ences, of which the fourth is reported in this issue, had their origins m 1972 with an historic meetmg sponsored by the Umted States-Japan Agreement in Science at Santa Barbara, Cahforma [1] Topics at the first Asia-Oceania Hlstocompatlbfllty Workshop (AOHW) mcluded a formal description of the H-2 and HLA sys- tems, the complexities of their analysis, their ~mportance In organ graftmg, and their disease associations Stan- dardizanon of techmcal procedures and serum procure- ment were very pressmg, practical considerations, but racial differences m anngenic speclficaties in the types of diseases and disease associations in the ethnic groups represented, as well as other attributes of the haplotypes, also foreshadowed later developments This conference was followed by a second, under the same auspices, an Hawaii In 19 7.7 [2] At the second conference, it was noted that this was % workshop-type conference of a different k ind--be tween scientists of two malor racial groups, (aucasIan and Oriental Some specificItIes are common to both groups as are the diseases with which they are associated Some diseases are assooated with given spec~ficmes In Caucasians and with other specifici- nes in Japanese, while in other instances, neither disease nor specificmes are shared "

These two conferences established the cooperation on which the first A O H W was based This workshop held m Hakone, Japan, had as its main purpose a "popu- lation study of the HLA system in Asia and Oceania areas" [3]

Although this was a very exciting meeting to the 24 laboratories attendmg, at had its weaknesses A number of the laboratories participating were relatively new and had not been tested in prewous workshops Although five races (Caucasians, ThaIs, Chmese, Oklnawans, and Japanese) were tested by more than one group, the other nine races were only tested by one laboratory Some of the attempts at quality control were frustrated by the failure of some of the sera bemg compared to react with certain populations Nevertheless, the pubhshed report contained an abundance of valuable data, for example,

on the gene frequency of many class I and class II alleles in 11 dlsmcts of Japan and a dendrogram of 13 different ethnic groups [3]

The second A O H W was held in Melbourne, Austra- ha, an 1981 [4] The primary aim of the workshop confer- ence was to "further unhze the existence of e th ica l ly &verse populations an resolwng the generics of the ma- lor histocompatlblhty complex and In clarifying genetic determmants of those diseases showing stnkmg differ- ences in occurrence between the various populations " As at Hakone, some of the laboratories were very new to t~ssue typing, a learmng component to the workshop as well as an opportumty to develop collaboranve ex- changes was also important A total of 48 laboratories from 12 countries parncapated and 97 delegates are listed as attendmg The report has sections on the analy- sis of all the malor ABC and DR serologic speclficmes as well as a central analysis and a series of disease reports

In 1986, the third workshop conference, which was held an Sapporo, Japan [5], resembled in size and scope one of the mare international htstocompatlbihty testing workshops with separate sections on monoclonal anti- bodies, biochemistry, molecular biology, antigenic func- non, transplantation, tolerance, blood transfusion, unre- sponsiveness, immunosuppresslon, mechanism of relecnon, and even organ preservanon The 262 partlc> pants from 19 countries were "happily renewing old friendships and celebrating new acquaintances " Many new speclficmes and sphts were recogmzed for the first time thanks to the Increasmg sophistication of the pamci- pants and the availabihty of so many ethnic groups

The fourth workshop was originally scheduled to be held In Perth, Austraha, an 1989 or 1990, but because of scheduling dlfficulnes and the pressures from competmg workshops, it was deferred to 1993 Seven days were devoted to this workshop and conference Including a 2- day retreat for participants involved in bone marrow grafting

This ,ssue of Human Immunology contams a selecnon of the topics that were presented during the fourth A O H W In Perth, Austraha, April 22-29 , 1993 The

Human Immunology 38, 1-2 (199',) 1 e American Soc*ety tor H*stotompanbdltv and lmmunogenencs 1993 0198-8859/9a,/$6 00

2 Editorml

workshop was compared w~th the International work- shops, small with some 150 paruc*pants, but the smaller size facilitated m-depth and crmcal d~scuss~ons The A O H gathering represented, like its predecessors, a group of workers from a large part o f the southern hemi- sphere O f the many ~tems that were d,scussed, those pertaining to the inheritance of haplotypes received (as could be expected m Perth) by far the most at tenuon Whether one refers to these haplotypes as being m strong hnkage d,sequlhbrlum, or as extended or ances- tral haplotypes, does not matter much The fact rema, ns that many of such haplotypes occur more frequently m certain lmmunopathologlc diseases that this m itself begs the quesuon to which extent the loo between and near the classic HLA class I and II loci play a role m dlsease pred,sposmon and perhaps also m organ transplantation During the conference, different approaches to map these loci were d~scussed, and some of these are reported m this issue The forthcoming mternat,onal workshop and conference will undoubtedly and out of necessity g~ve much at tenuon to these "new" loc~, and the Perth conference can in that context be regarded as a forerun- ner of the mternauonal one

More mundane, but certainly at least as ,mportant, remains the matter of D N A technology based on the polymerase cha, n reacuon An approach pioneered by Malcolm Slmons is presented m this Issue It should be noted that although simple and inexpensive, it per-

formed perfectly in the preceding fourth A O H workshop

Finally, the editors express the,r grautude to the re- viewers of the manuscripts, often under extreme time constraints, who helped to select and improve the manu- scripts, and to Joke Veenstra, w~thout whose help even Roger Dawkms, the guest editor, would not have been able to put this issue together

D BERNARD AMOS JON J VAN ROOD

REFERENCES

1 Amos DB, Inou T, Rowlands DT Human hlstocompatlbil- ity antigens and susceptibility to disease Science 182 182, 1973

2 Amos DB, Rowlands DT, Inou T HLA and disease suscep- tlblhty Tissue Antigens 11 492, 1978

3 Tsull K, Komori K Introduction In Tsul, K, Komorl K (eds) Proceedings of the First Asia and Oceania Histocom- patlblhty Workshop and Conference Tokyo, Japan HLA Association, p 21

4 Slmons MJ Tait BD (eds) Proceedings of the Second Asia and Oceania Hlstocompat,blllty Workshop Conference Toorak, Austraha, Immunopubhshing

5 Alzawa M, Natorl T, Waklsaka A, Kondeda Y (eds) HLA in Asia-Oceania Hokkaldo, Japan, Hokkaido University Press, 1986