The distribution of some serum protein and red cell enzyme polymorphisms in the Koch ethnic group of West Bengal, India

High Frequency of Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase Deficiency in Patients Diagnosed with Celiac Disease

Celiac disease (CD) is characterized by a proinflammatory state associated with the production of reactive oxygen species, i.e., a condition of oxidative stress. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that the inherited deficiency of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD), by causing impaired antioxidant defense, may increase the risk of CD.

METHODS

A retrospective monocentric case-control study was performed using the clinical records of 8338 outpatients (64.6% women) scheduled for upper endoscopy between 2002 and 2021 in Northern Sardinia. Overall, 627 were found to have CD (7.5%), and 1027 resulted to be G6PD-deficiency carriers (12.3%). Since randomization was impractical, the potential covariates imbalance between cases and controls was minimized using a 1:2 propensity-score-matched (PSM) analysis.

RESULTS

Overall, G6PD deficiency was associated with increased risk of CD (odds ratio (OR) 1.50; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.19-1.90). The PSM procedure identified 1027 G6PD-deficient and 2054 normal patients. Logistic regression including the propensity score detected for G6PD deficiency an OR of 1.48 (95%CI 1.13-1.95; p = 0.004).

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings show that the enzyme defect was significantly and positively associated with CD, in line with the pro-oxidant impact of the enzyme defect observed in animal models and humans.

Genetic variation at minisatellite loci D1S7, D4S139, D5S110 and D17S79 among three population groups of eastern India

Genetic variation at four minisatellite loci D1S7, D4S139, D5S110 and D17S79 in three predominant population groups of eastern India, namely Brahmin, Kayastha and Garo, are reported in this study. The Brahmin and Kayastha are of Indo-Caucasoid origin while the Garo community represents the Indo-Mongoloid ethnic group. The methodology employed comprised generation of HaeIII-restricted fragments of isolated DNA, Southern blotting, and hybridization using chemiluminescent probes MS1, pH30, LH1 and V1 for the four loci. All four loci were highly polymorphic in the population groups. Heterozygosity values for the four loci ranged between 0.68 and 0.95. Neither departure from Hardy Weinberg expectations nor evidence of any association across alleles among the selected loci was observed. The gene differentiation value among the loci is moderate (GST = 0.027). A neighbour-joining tree constructed on the basis of the generated data shows very low genetic distance between the Brahmin and Kayastha communities in relation to the Garo. Our results based on genetic distance analysis are consistent with results of earlier studies based on serological markers and linguistic as well as morphological affiliations of these populations and their Indo-Caucasoid and Indo-Mongoloid origin. The minisatellite loci studied here were found to be not only useful in showing significant genetic variation between the populations but also to be suitable for human identity testing among eastern Indian populations.

Genetic relationships of the populations in eastern India

The genetic relationships for four sets of populations in eastern India have been studied by using gene frequency data available in the literature. The Caucasoid populations in Assam and West Bengal are genetically close but different from the Mongoloid populations in the neighbourhood. The genetic distance analysis shows that the Mongoloid populations in Assam and West Bengal cluster according to their states of residence, indicating a correlation between genetic and geographical distances.