Heterogeneity of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency in Algeria

Abstract

Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency was found in 3.2% of the male population living in the urban area of Algiers. The deficient subjects originated from multiple geographic regions of Northern Algeria, with prevalence of individuals of Berber-Kabyle origin. Red blood cell G6PD was partially purified and characterized in deficient males from 17 families, and six different variants were found. Among them, only one, the Gd(-) Kabyle variant, had been previously described. It was detected in nine families. The other five variants were new: Gd(-) Laghouat (four cases), Gd(-) Blida (one case), Gd(-) Thenia (one case), Gd(-) Titteri (one case), and Gd(-) Alger (two brothers). Strikingly, the common Mediterranean variant was not found. G6PD deficiency is heterogeneous in northern Algeria where autochtonous variants seem to prevail. The Kabyle variant may be common in this country.

Human Enzyme Polymorphism in the Canary Islands

“…Comparisons of gene frequencies in Lanzarote (L) and Fucrteventura (F) with: Gran Canaria (GC)1, Tenerife (T)2 and Peninsula (P)2 samples [Roychoudhury and Nei, 1988] nor found by us in a large Spanish sample from the mainland living in the Canaries [Afonso et al, 1989], G6PD variants with a slower anodic migration than the norma! one (B) have been reported in low fre quencies in Arabs [El-Hazmi and Warsi, 1986], North Africans [Benabadji et al, 1978], and Black Africans [Usanga et al, 1977;Welch et al, 1978], Although it is not possible to discard a black origin, the fact that this allele differs in its distribution from the African allele G6PD-A+ in Gran Canaria [Morilla et al, 1988] weakens this hypothesis. North African origin seems probable since higher frequencies of this allele have been found in islands where the most important Berber settlement is described [Lobo Cabrera, 1982].…”

Performance of a Commercial Multiplex Allele-Specific Polymerase Chain Reaction Kit to Genotype African-Type Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase Deficiency

“…43,48,49 In the countries north of Mauritania, the prevalence of a G6PD enzyme deficiency in the male population has been reported to be 3.2% in Algeria, mostly because of autochthonous variants predominated by the Kabyle type, but also resulting from the Mediterranean-type genotype as well as the African-type A 2 in a minority of persons with black African ancestry. 50,51 Among anemic Moroccan patients, 15% were associated with G6PD enzyme deficiency, mostly a result of the African-type G6PD A 2 (50%) and the Mediterranean-type G6PD (7.4%). 52 A Mediterranean-type deficiency is the result of a single C563T mutation, which was not detected in our study.…”