Common HLA alleles associated with health, but not with facial attractiveness

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dc.contributor.authorCoetzee, Vinet
dc.contributor.authorBarrett, Louise
dc.contributor.authorGreeff, Jaco M.
dc.contributor.authorHenzi, Peter
dc.contributor.authorPerrett, David I.
dc.contributor.authorWadee, Ahmed A.
dc.date.accessioned2016-11-08T23:35:59Z
dc.date.available2016-11-08T23:35:59Z
dc.date.issued2007
dc.descriptionSherpa Romeo green journal: open accessen_US
dc.description.abstractThree adaptive hypotheses have been proposed to explain the link between the human leucocyte antigen (HLA) genes, health measures and facial attractiveness: inbreeding avoidance, heterozygote advantage and frequency-dependent selection. This paper reports findings that support a new hypothesis relating HLA to health. We suggest a new method to quantify the level of heterozygosity. HLA heterozygosity did not significantly predict health measures in women, but allele frequency did. Women with more common HLA alleles reported fewer cold and flu bouts per year, fewer illnesses in the previous year and rated themselves healthier than women with rare alleles. To our knowledge, this is the first study to show a positive correlation between HLA allele frequency and general health measures. We propose that certain common HLA alleles confer resistance to prevalent pathogens. Nevertheless, neither HLA heterozygosity nor allele frequency significantly predicted how healthy or attractive men rated the female volunteers. Three non-mutually exclusive explanations are put forward to explain this finding.en_US
dc.description.peer-reviewYesen_US
dc.identifier.citationCoetzee, V., Barrett, L., Greeff, J. M., Henzi, S. P., Perrett, D. I., & Wadee, A. A. (2007). Common HLA alleles associated with health, but not with facial attractiveness. PLoS ONE, 2(7), e640. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0000640en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10133/4661
dc.language.isoen_CAen_US
dc.publisherPublic Library of Scienceen_US
dc.publisher.departmentDepartment of Psychologyen_US
dc.publisher.facultyArts and Scienceen_US
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Pretoriaen_US
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Lethbridgeen_US
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of St. Andrewsen_US
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of the Witwatersranden_US
dc.subjectHuman leucocyte antigenen_US
dc.subjectHLA genesen_US
dc.subjectHLA alleleen_US
dc.subjectHeterozygosityen_US
dc.subjectHealth measuresen_US
dc.subjectFacial attractivenessen_US
dc.titleCommon HLA alleles associated with health, but not with facial attractivenessen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US
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