Title: human leukocyte antigen
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - human leukocyte antigen
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.13230
Status: current

Definition
Antigen coded by genes of the human major histocompatibility complex (MHC).

Notes
1) Human HLA-A, -B and -C (resembling mouse H-2K, D and L) are MHC class I molecules, whereas HLA-DP, -DQ and -DR (resembling mouse I-A and I-E) are MHC class II molecules.
2) The genes for HLAs are situated on chromosome 6.

Related Terms
- MHC class I: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/13431
- MHC class II: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/13432
- major histocompatibility complex (MHC): https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/13430

Source
- PAC, 2012, 84, 1113. 'IUPAC glossary of terms used in immunotoxicology (IUPAC Recommendations 2012)' on page 1178 (https://doi.org/10.1351/PAC-REC-11-06-03)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/13230/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/13230/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/13230/xml

Citation: Citation: 'human leukocyte antigen' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.13230
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Accessed: 2026-06-30T02:48:45+00:00