Fetal haemoglobin production and the sickle gene in the oases of Eastern Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Fetal haemoglobin (HbF) levels have been measured in 137 normal (AA) subjects, 109 with the sickle-cell trait (AS) and 237 with sickle-cell anaemia (SS) from the oasis population of Eastern Saudi Arabia. In addition the proportion of F-cells has been estimated in 71 AA, 51 AS and 34 SS subjects. The mean HbF% (and the range of F-cells %) were: AA 0.77 (0.3--18), AS 1.38 (2.3--43) and SS 25.56 (33--98). The distribution of Hb F was always heterocellular. The influence of pregnancy accounts for most of the excess female subjects with sickle-cell trait showing raised Hb F and F-cells. Whilst the normal Arabs and those with sickle-cell trait did not differ from comparable groups of American blacks, both the % Hb F and % F-cells in Saudi Arabian patients with sickle-cell anaemia were much higher than in Blacks. The high Hb F levels in individuals with sickle-cell anaemia are not due to coexistent glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency or alpha-thalassaemia trait, and the Hb F level showed an inverse correlation with the degree of haemolysis. These findings indicate that the unusually elevated levels of Hb F are not due to an associated high frequency of a gene for hetero-cellular hereditary persistence of fetal haemoglobin in the oasis population, but rather from a genetically determined absolute increase in Hb F production related in some way to the SS genotype.