Abstract

We have developed a rapid and simple method to diagnose the molecular defects of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency in Chinese in Taiwan. This method involves the selective amplification of a DNA fragment from human G6PD gene with specific oligonucleotide primers followed by digestion with restriction enzymes that recognize artificially created or naturally occurring restriction sites. Ninety-four Chinese males with G6PD deficiency were studied. The results show that 50% (47 of 94) were G to T mutation at nucleotide (nt) 1376, 21.3% (20 of 94) were G to A mutation at nt 1388, 7.4% (7 of 94) were A to G mutation at nt 493, 7.4% (7 of 94) were A to G mutation at nt 95, 4.2% (4 of 94) were C to T mutation at nt 1024, 1.1% (1 of 94) was G to T mutation at nt 392, and 1.1% (1 of 94) was G to A mutation at nt 487. These results show that the former five mutations account for more than 90% of G6PD deficiency cases in Taiwan. Aside from showing that G to T change at nt 1376 is the most common mutation, our research indicates that nt 493 mutation is a frequent mutation among Chinese in Taiwan. We compared G6PD activity among different mutations, without discovering significant differences between them.