Abstract
Background: RH genotyping studies have been conducted mainly in people of Caucasian and African descent. There is limited information regarding the molecular basis for RH genotypes in Malaysia.
Objectives: To investigate the prevalence and characteristics of RHCE genotypes among different ethnic groups in Malaysia.
Methods: A total of 1014 whole blood samples were obtained from donors from 4 different ethnic groups (360 Malays, 434 Chinese, 164 Indians, and 56 others). All samples were phenotyped for C, c, D, E, and e using standard serologic methods and genotyped using polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based analysis.
Results: In the blood samples that we analyzed, the distribution of RH genotype antigens was significantly different among the various ethnic groups. Our findings showed that CCDee is the most common in Malaysian blood donors; 18.4% (187/1014) compared with other genotypes. The ccDEE genotype is more prevalent in the Chinese: 65.6% (82/125), and the ccee genotype is more prevalent in Indians: 47.1% (65/138). There were discrepancies between phenotypes and genotypes. There were 17 (1.7%) discrepancies in RH C/c genotyping results and of these 47% (8/17) occurred in Malays. Discrepancies in RH E/e results occurred in 3 samples (0.3%).
Conclusions: Our study provides a database for the distribution of RH genotypes of donors from the major ethnic groups in Malaysia. Methods used in this study are useful for comparing the phenotypes and genotypes. Further investigation should be conducted to study the causes of these discrepancies using other molecular based techniques.