Haptoglobin subtyping by isoelectric focusing in ultrathin-layer polyacrylamide gels. Population genetic data for Hanover and Lower Saxony.

This report describes a method for subtyping haptoglobin by means of isoelectric focusing in 0.2-mm ultrathin-layer polyacrylamide gels. Haptoglobin (Hp) is purified by ion-exchange chromatography and reduced. The well-known advantages of ultrathin-layer gels combine high isoelectrophoretic resolution of the Hp subtypes with less demands for time and material and make sequential visualization by fixation and protein staining possible. The distribution of the Hp subtypes in 1500 unrelated adults from Hanover and Lower Saxony is presented. Allelic frequencies are calculated to be: Hp*2FF = 0.0030; *2FS = 0.5620; *2SS = 0.0290; *1F = 0.1537; *1S = 0.2523. Segregation analysis for 68 matings shows an autosomal codominant mode of transmission in all cases. For the population investigated the chance of isolated paternity exclusion with the subtyped Hp system amounts to 33.91%.