Immunoglobulin Levels in HIV Patients with Reference to Abo Blood Group

ABSTRACT This study aims at determining the effect of the ABO blood groups on the level of immunoglobulin classes in patients infected with HIV-1. One hundred and fifty three (153) confirmed HIV-1 positive subjects were enrolled in the study. These comprise of 62 (40.5%) males and 91 (59.5%) females. Sex and age-matched HIV-negative control were also recruited. The subjects comprise of adults aged 18 - 55 years with 36 years as the mean age. The study was conducted at the CDC-UNTH HIV clinic Enugu after obtaining ethical approval from the relevant authority. Informed and duly signed consent was also obtained from each subject before the commencement of the research. Biodata of the patients such as age, sex, infection duration and medical history were obtained from their folders by a clinician while that of the control group was obtained by the research counselor nurse. The duration of infection was also taken into consideration in the study with one (1) year and seven (7) years duration of infection as the minimum and maximum respectively. The total protein, globulin, albumin IgG, IgM and IgA were assayed for both the HIV-positive patients and control subjects. The mean levels of the total protein, globulin, albumin, IgG ,IgM and IgA for the HIV-positive subjects were 84.92g/l, 40.13g/l, 44.96g/l, 19.31g/l, 1.56g/l and 2.41g/l respectively. The mean levels of the total protein, globulin, albumin, IgG, IgM and IgA for the control were 75.94g/l, 30.19g/l,45.80g/l, 18.78g/l, 0.88g/l, 2.12g/l respectively. Our work did not establish any statistically significant relationship (p0.05) were observed in the HIV-positive subjects when compared with the control group. Statistical significant difference (p< 0.05) was observed in the mean levels of IgA across the ABO blood groups of the HIV-positive subjects while no significant statistical difference was observed in the mean levels of their total protein, globulin, albumin, IgG and IgM. The control group showed significant statistical difference (p> 0.05) in the mean levels of the globulin across the ABO blood groups while no significant statistical difference were observed in the mean levels of the total protein, albumin, IgA, IgG and IgM . No significant statistical differences were observed in the mean levels of total protein, globulin, albumin, IgG, IgM and IgA in both the female and male gender of the HIV-1 positive subjects. Also no significant statistical difference were observed in the mean levels of total protein, globulin, albumin, IgG and IgM in both the female and male gender of the control group, however, higher mean levels of IgA with significant statistical difference (P < 0.05) was observed in the female gender when compared with their male counterpart. There was no observable significant statistical difference in the mean levels of the total protein, globulin, albumin, IgG, IgM and IgA across the different age groups of the HIV-positive subjects. There were significant statistical difference (p < 0.05) in the mean levels of the total protein and albumin across the different age groups of the control group. There were significant statistical difference (p < 0.05) in the mean levels of total protein, globulin, IgM and IgG across the different groups of infection duration with observable increase in the mean levels of IgG as the disease progresses while decrease is observed in the mean levels of total protein, globulin and IgM as the disease progresses .We found in this study that there is no statistical association between ABO blood group and HIV-1 infection. Statistically significant higher mean levels of IgA was recorded for the ‘A’ blood group of the HIV-1 infected when compared with their other counterparts in the ABO blood group. We recommend the inclusion of IgG level in assessing the disease progression in HIV-1 infection. . Further study is recommended.