The frequency of the blood group antigen K in Hebron District

Abstract

The Kell blood group system is an interesting mix of high-frequency and low-frequency antigens. It consists of 25 antigens, which include six pairs or triplets of antithetical antigens. All of these polymorphisms represent SNPs encoding amino acid substitutions on the Kell glycoprotein. The two antithetical antigens (K and k) remain the most common of the system. K has a frequency of about 9% in a Caucasian population, about 3.6% in blacks, and up to 25% in Arabs. The purpose of this study is to determine the frequency of K antigen in Hebron District which was found to be 7% (92/1321) which is still low compared to that with Caucasians (9%), and so the chance of receiving a K+ unit and becoming immunized for the antigen is small.