PREVALENCE OF HAEMOLYSIN ANTIBODIES AMONG SICKLE CELL SUBJECTS IN BENIN

ABSTRACT

Haemolysin is a type of antibody that has the ability of combining with its specific antigen on the red blood cells and together with complement causes cellular destruction. It is divided into alpha, beta and alpha - beta haemolysin types. Immune haemolysin production may occur following ABO heterospecific pregnancy, allogenic multiple blood transfusion or immunization with A or B substances. Blood transfusion is usually used in the management of Sickle Cell Anaemia. Sickle cell disease is a genetic disorder associated with polymerization of haemoglobin in red blood cell, due to homozygous nucleotide variant for a single β-globin gene mutation (β6GAG - GTG), it precedes repetitive changes of haemoglobin structure leading to anaemia. This study aims at determining the prevalence of haemolysin in sickle cell subjects in Benin City. In this study, two hundred and four participants were divided in four groups consisting of a male and female control groups and male and female sickle cell subjects with transfusion history, another division was for age groups of ten year interval, therapeutic medication, and ABO serogroup. Sickle cell individuals were gotten from patients at Sickle Cell Centre in Benin. Blood samples were collected for ABO phenotype, haemoglobin electrophoresis, haemolysin test and antibody titration using standard techniques respectively. In sickle cell subjects, there was a significantly higher alpha haemolysin (26.6%, P<0.05), beta haemolysin had no significant difference (11 %, P > 0.05) while alpha- beta haemolysin had a significant difference of (12.4%, P< 0.05). In age ranges 11-20 years,and female gender alpha haemolysin antibodies was significantly higher (24.0% , P<0.05) and (females (32.7% ,P< 0.05) respectively. Observations of higher haemolysins among sickle cell patients could be a vital indicator for blood transfusion safety for sickle cell anaemia.