The frequency in Japanese of genetic variants of 22 proteins

Abstract

SUMMARY This paper presents the results of an electrophoretic survey of approximately 4000 individuals from the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, for four serum proteins: albumin, ceruloplasmin, haptoglobin and transferrin. The haptoglobin gene frequencies obtained for the HP 1 ‐HP 2 polymorphism are in agreement with earlier reports. Rare electrophoretic variants of albumin, ceruloplasmin and haptoglobin occur with frequencies of 2.48, 0.50 and 0.58 per 1000 determinations, respectively. The noteworthy finding of 8 distinct transferrin variants in these populations, with a combined frequency of 20.90 per 1000 determinations, is also presented. Four of these variants (D Ch1 , B 1 , B 3 and D hir2 which corresponds electrophoretically to D 4 ) have been reported in other populations in Japan, but the other five have not previously been differentiated.