Distribution of Haptoglobin Among Thais

Abstract

HAPTOGLOBIN type distribution has been determined on 682 Thais. All were normal, healthy male adults in the Royal Thai Army. Almost without exception their place of birth was confined to the provinces of north central and north eastern Thailand. This area of the kingdom was chosen for the survey as the one in which the population would be the most representative of the Thai people. It was felt that in this region there would be a minimum of disturbance of the Thai haptoglobin gene frequencies by recent (that is, past several centuries) admixture with non-Thai groups such as Burmese, Chinese, or Malayans. The blood samples were heparinized and centrifuged and the plasmas transferred to merthiolated vials immediately after collection and afterwards transported to our laboratory for electrophoretic analysis. Haptoglobin type identification was accomplished by the Smithies vertical starch-gel electrophoresis procedure 1 with minor modifications.