Alpha-1-Antitrypsin in Saudi Population

Alpha-I-antitrypsin (1AT) is the major protease inhibitor in the blood plasma and plays a protective role by inhibiting several endogenous proteases. It occurs in the form of several genetically determined variants that differ from the normal 1AT in their physical properties and protease inhibiting capacity. Some variants are completely devoid of all activity while others have very little protease inhibitory capacity and have been implicated as a predisposing factor to emphysema and liver diseases. We investigated the level of 1AT in plasma samples using a spectrophotometric method and expressed the results as Trypsin Inhibitory Units (TIU) and as Trypsin Inhibitory Capacity (TIC) of the serum. The 'reference range' for TIU was 262.7 ± 107.2 TIU/dl and for TIC was 0.881± 0.360 TIC/I. In the Saudi population partial 1AT deficiency was identified at a frequency of 0.0663 and the frequency of complete deficiency was 0.0102.
This paper presents the results of a pilot study on Saudis and shows that 1AT deficiency exists in the Saudi population.