Mutation spectrum of beta-thalassemia among carriers in Birjand and Amirabad village

Thalassemia is considered as the most important monogenic disorders around the world. So far, about 60 mutations of this type have been reported in Iranian patients. Comparison between different provinces of the country reveals that the dispersion of the mutations is significantly various with respect to their types and frequencies. The current study aimed at assessing prevalent molecular mutations in β Thalassemia carriers in Birjand and Amirabad at the suburb of the city.
In this descriptive in-vitro study, 34 carriers (15 females and 19 males), who had been identified through marriage screening tests at the health centers in the South Khorasan province were assessed. After obtaining written informed consent of the subjects and completing the respective questionnaires, 2 cc of intravenous blood sample from each subject were collected into EDTA tubes. Salting out and Arms-PCR methods were used for DNA extraction and mutation detection, respectively. Finally, the obtained data was analysed by means of SPSS software (V;19) using Fisher’s test at the significant level of P It was found that among five mutations on 68 chromosomes, IVS 1-5 mutation with 47.1% frequency was the highest; and the mutations of Codon, Fr 8/9 , IVS II-1 5 , and Codon 37/38/39 had the frequency of 17.6%, 8.8%, 5.9% ,and 5.9% respectively. Out of the mutations, 14.7 % .remained undetermined.
The mutation patterns obtained in Birjand reveal an outstanding difference with the state of affairs in the north and west of IRAN..High frequency of consanguity marriages between thalassemia carrier individuals indicates the potential reason behind increasing the number of patients with major thalassemia.