Paternity testing with VNTR DNA systems. II. Evaluation of 271 cases of disputed paternity with the VNTR systems D2S44, D5S43, D7S21, D7S22, and D12S11.

Paternity testing was carried out in 271 cases of disputed paternity using the 5 VNTR systems D2S44 (YNH24), D5S43 (MS8), D7S21 (MS31), D7S22 (g3), and D12S11 (MS43a), and 10-15 conventional marker systems including the HLA-A,B system. By means of the matching criteria for the VNTR systems established elsewhere (Morling & Hansen 1992), all 70 unrelated men who had been excluded by conventional typing were also excluded with 2 or more VNTR systems. Based on the observed exclusion frequencies for the 5 VNTR systems, a theoretical exclusion rate exceeding 0.999 could be obtained. A total of 350 father/child pairs were studied and in 3 paternity cases and one immigrant family, the alleged fathers were excluded solely by one of the 5 VNTR systems possibly reflecting mutations. No mother/child exclusions were observed among 350 mother/child pairs. Linkage analysis between the syntenic systems D7S21 (MS31) and D7S22 (g3) was performed in 29 informative families with 81 children and revealed a recombination distance of about 31 cM. The positive evidence for paternity provided by the 5 VNTR systems in cases with non-exclusions is discussed.

HLA types of mummified Eskimo bodies from the 15th century.

In 1978 the bodies of eight Eskimos were discovered in two tombs among the rocks at Qilakitsoq in the Umanak District on the west coast of Greenland. By C14 analysis at the Danish National Museum the burial was dated around A.D. 1460. The climatic conditions have been favorable for the preservation of the bodies, which were freeze-dried by nature to almost the consistency of wood. With skin and muscle tissue from the thigh, a human leukocyte antigen (HLA) type determination was carried out by means of a microabsorption method developed in this laboratory on spleen tissue from recently deceased persons (Hansen and Gürtler, 1979, 1982). The aim of the HLA determinations of these mummies was to reveal possible family relationships, and to see whether the HLA antigens found would be typical for now-living Eskimo populations. The results indicate that two families were buried, one in each of the two tombs.

An examination of HLA frequencies in three age groups.

The question as to whether the distribution of HLA antigens differs between old and young persons has been studied only in a few population groups. There are observations showing an increase of heterozygosity of the HLA system (Bender et al. 1973, Gerkins et al. 1974) which indicate an advantage of heterozygosity for survival, but other studies fail to confirm this finding )Albert et al. 1974, Mucurová et al. 1975, Bender et al. 1976). Since the present authors, in a study of HLA gene frequencies on five small Danish islands (Hansen et al. 1974) had found a tendency to a changed frequency of certain HLA types among the oldest persons, it was decided to examine this question by typing larger numbers of persons of different age groups.