The functional relevance of human leukocyte antigens in the development of cord blood derived advanced cellular therapies: A new direction of public cord blood banks.

CBUs have been applied as alternative source of HSCs transplantation. The increasing preference for haploidentical HSC transplantation has resulted in a reduced application of CBUs worldwide. Banked CBUs in public CBBs have been processed with the highest quality standards, representing a valuable biologic source for potential production of ATMPs. The aim of this study was to characterize the HLA allele and haplotype composition of the HCBB inventory and compare its immunogenetic profile with Greek and selected international populations. Stored CBUs (n = 461) were HLA typed and analyzed in terms of allele and haplotype distribution. Unsupervised machine learning algorithms were utilized to compare the HLA allele and haplotype frequencies with the populations registered in the DKMS. Finally, Greek hematological patients (n = 432) were HLA typed, to descriptively assess similarities in HLA allele and haplotype distributions between the HCBB inventory and a representative Greek patient cohort. The results demonstrated similar HLA allele and haplotype frequency distributions between the HCBB inventory, Greek hematological patients, and several geographically related populations. These findings provide a descriptive characterization of the HCBB inventory and indicate that its HLA profile shares common features with the populations examined.