?-Thalassemia in Saudi Arabia: deletion pattern

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Abstract
α-Thalassemia exists at a high prevalence in several regions of Saudi Arabia. The restriction endonucleases Bam HI and BglII were used to investigate the molecular basis of deletion type of α-thalassemia in 226 subjects from the eastern and 61 subjects from the northwestern regions of the country. The arrangements-α/αα and-α/-α were common. BglII digestion revealed the existence of rightward deletion in a majority of the cases. Leftward deletions, both homozygous and heterozygous, were also identified. Triple α-gene arrangements -α/αα and -α/-α were observed at a low frequency in both regions.