Abstract
Background The mutations and polymorphisms of the X-ray repair cross-complementing group 1 (XRCC1) gene may render base excision repair pathway ineffective, leading to cancers including leukemias. The variable occurrence of XRCC1 Arg399Gln polymorphism affects diverse ethnic groups differently; however, there is a lack of data for the Saudi population. This study sought to elucidate the allelic distribution and the frequency of XRCC1 Arg399Gln polymorphism in Saudi Arabian population and also to compare the same with other populations globally.
Materials and methods PubMed (Medline) and other relevant web-databases were used to extract published epidemiological studies conducted in diverse racial/ethnic groups.
Results The frequency of XRCC1 Arg399Gln variant allele (A) was found to be 25%. A significant difference was found for the UK (P<0.0001), Turkey (P <= 0.001), Austria (P=0.009), Ukraine (P=0.008), Poland (P <= 0.001), India (P <= 0.001), and Romania (P=0.015) population, upon comparison of this frequency with that of other populations.
Conclusion The findings of this study show a unique pattern of DNA repair gene XRCC1 Arg399Gln variant allele in Saudi Arabia population possibly because of ethnic variation. The results may help in risk evaluation of individuals having exposure to environmental carcinogens and an eventual leukemia susceptibility in diverse populations. (C) 2019 The Egyptian Journal of Haematology