HLA-Cw alleles were determined by high-resolution polymerase chain reaction-sequence-specific oligonucleotide probe (PCR-SSOP) oligotyping in a sample of 165 Mandenka, a population from Eastern Senegal previously analysed for A/B and DRB/DQB polymorphisms. A total of 18 Cw alleles were identified, with Cw*0401/5 and 1601 accounting for a combined frequency of 36%. A comparison of Cw allele frequencies among several populations of different origins, Mandenka, Swiss, English, Ashkenazi Jews from the UK and Japanese, reveals a high genetic heterogeneity among them, but also a much closer relationship between Mandenka, Europeans and Ashkenazi than between any of these populations and Japanese. Cw*0501, Cw*0701 and Cw*1601, among others, appear to be restricted to the European and African populations. Many B-Cw haplotypes exhibit a significant linkage disequilibrium in the Mandenka, among which B*3501-Cw*0401 and B*7801-Cw*1601, formed by the most frequent B and Cw alleles, and B*5201-Cw*1601, B*5702-Cw*18 and B*4410-Cw*0401, not yet observed in other populations. B*3501-Cw*0401 is found with similar frequencies in Europeans. The results possibly support a close historical relationship between Africans and Europeans as compared to East Asiatics. However, the HLA-Cw frequency distributions are characterised by an excess of heterozygotes, indicating that balancing selection may have played a role in the evolution of this polymorphism.

In order to extend our current understanding of HLA-C polymorphism, four new alleles have been cloned and sequenced: Cw*1801 in a donor of mixed origin, Cw*02024 in a Senegalese individual, Cw*1205 and Cw*1604 in European Caucasoid blood donors. HLA-Cw*1801, which most likely results from an interallelic recombination between Cw*0704 and 0401 alleles, was not associated with B*8101, but with either B*4403 or B18. The Cw*02024 allele differs from Cw*02022 by a silent mutation in exon 3. Both Cw*1801 and Cw*02024 appear to be rather frequent in populations of African origin but have not yet been detected in Caucasoids. HLA-Cw*1604 differs from Cw*1601 by two nucleotides at codon 156 leading to a Gln to Trp substitution. This new Cw16 subtype was subsequently identified in three additional unrelated families, all of South-European origin, and presented an unusual association with B*4402 in all cases. HLA-Cw*1205 is a composite allele with the alpha1 domain of Cw*1602 and the alpha2 domain of Cw*1203. It appears to be rare, at least in European Caucasoids. Three of these four alleles may have resulted from gene conversion-like or interallelic recombination events.

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