Alpha-1-antitrypsin types in five Chinese national minorities.

The frequencies of alpha-1-antitrypsin alleles were determined for five Chinese national minorities: Uigur, Korean, Mongolian, Chuang, and Li. PI S and PI Z alleles are not found in the five populations studied. PI ETOK allele is present in Korean, Mongolian, and Chuang populations, and Etokyo is a very common alpha-1-antitrypsin variant in Chinese. Other alleles which occur in more than one of the minorities are PI X (Mongolian and Chuang) and PI M4 (Korean and Uigur). The high frequency of PI M4 in the Uigur population suggests a probably Occidental origin of this nationality.