Prevalence of H63D, S65C, and C282Y hereditary hemochromatosis gene variants in Madeira Island (Portugal).

Hereditary HFE Hemochromatosis is an inherited disorder of iron metabolism that results from mutations in the HFE gene. Almost all patients with hereditary hemochromatosis show a C282Y mutation in homozygosity or in compound heterozygosity with H63D. Also, the mutation S65C has been shown to be associated to a milder iron overload. Since allele and genotype frequencies of these three variants of the HFE gene vary between populations, the determination of their prevalence in Madeira Island will clarify the population susceptibility to hereditary hemochromatosis. One hundred and fifty-four samples from Madeira Island were genotyped for the three most common HFE gene mutations, H63D, C282Y, and S65C, by polymerase chain reaction followed by restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. Results have shown a prevalence of 20.5%, 0.33%, and 1% for H63D, C282Y, and S65C, respectively. Accordingly to our estimates, both genotypes associated to hereditary hemochromatosis, C282Y homozygotes and C282/H63D compound heterozygotes, could be present in Madeira Island population in 1,648 individuals, which represents 0.65% of the total population.