Abstract

The susceptibility of patients to certain pathologies, such as tuberculosis (TB), is associated to the phenotype of their haptoglobin (Hp). The objective of this study was to investigate the prognostic value of the haptoglobin phenotype in tuberculosis by determining the association of Hp phenotypes with certain epidemiological and clinical characteristics of tuberculosis in Côte d'Ivoire. In a case-control study, 131 tuberculosis and 109 non-tuberculosis as controls, voluntary blood donors were recruited in Abidjan. From venous blood samples, phenotyping of Hp was performed by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis according to Raymond's method. Comparisons were made using chi2 test at risk α = 5%. We found three phenotypes: Hp1-1, Hp2-1, Hp2-2 in the respective proportions of 27.5%, 50.5% and 22 % in the control population (n = 109) and 36.6%, 54.2% and 9.2% in the tuberculosis population (n = 131). Among the population carrying the Hp¹ allele, 58.3% were tuberculosis patients compared to 41.7% in controls subject (p = 0.006). Among TB patients, 33.3% carried Hp2-2 subtype compared to 66.7% in controls (p = 0.011). The Hardy-Weinberg’s equilibrium showed that tuberculosis patients carring Hp2-2 phenotype died early. Hp phenotype was not associated to TB-HIV co-infection, neither to TB treatment nor to response to anti-tuberculosis treatment. We concluded that there is an association between Hp phenotype and TB infection prognosis. Hp2-2, less antioxidant seemed to be associated to the disease with poor prognosis.

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