Distribution of Haptoglobin Phenotypes among Patients with HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis B, Liver Cirrhosis and Chronic Renal Failure in Sudan

Abstract

Haptoglobin (Hp) is a plasma α2-glycoprotein that binds free haemoglobin and is thought to have a role in the
immune pathway of different pathologies depending on its phenotype.
A total of 497 Sudanese patients with viral infections and non-infectious diseases were typed for haptoglobin
phenotypes, in this study, using the polyacrylamide non-reducing gel electrophoresis separation method to
determine possible associations between haptoglobin phenotypes Hp1-1, Hp2-1 and Hp2-2. Viral infections
included human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) (n= 129) and hepatitis B (HBV) (n=171). The non-infectious
diseases were: liver cirrhosis (LC) (n=68) and chronic renal failure (CRF) (n= 129). Healthy controls (n= 65)
were also typed. Each disease sample was compared with the control. Expected percentages of each of the three
phenotypes in Sudan estimated using SPSS were between 51.38-51.49% for Hp1-1, 36.71-36.81% for Hp2-1
and 11.76-11.91% for Hp2-2. Hp1-1 was found the most significantly prevalent among patients with LC
(P≤0.05). Patients with HIV/AIDS and HBV showed the same distribution of haptoglobin phenotypes as the
healthy control (i.e. a majority of Hp2-1); whereas the highest percentage of patients with Hp2-2 were those
with CRF (≥23%) although not significantly different from the control. Using Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium
(HWE) as a null model, hp1
allele frequency was calculated to be 0.69 and hp2
allele frequency was 0.31 in
Sudan. The healthy control, LC and CRF sampled populations were significantly deviated from HWE (P=0.05).
In this study, we found that Hp1-1 has a significant association with LC. HIV/AIDS and HBV showed the same
distribution of phenotypes as control and the highest percentage of patients with Hp2-2 were those with CRF.
hp1
and hp2
allele frequencies were 0.69 and 0.31 in Sudan.