Summary
The serum level of β2-glycoprotein I has been measured in a sample of 532 healthy, unrelated Caucasians resident in Melbourne. The distribution of levels is bimodal but lacks complete separation of the two modes. Samples with levels below 14.0 mg/100 ml are considered to be type I, and those above this level to be type N. The present sample contains 42 subjects of the former phenotype and 490 of the latter. The phenotypes are distributed equally between males and females and between smokers and nonsmokers and are unrelated to age, birth rank, or parental age. The gene frequencies for the Melbourne sample are compared with those found in various European samples.
The β2-glycoprotein I level of type N males is higher than that of females, and smokers have a higher level than nonsmokers. The positive regression of level on age is significant when corrections are made for sex and smoking status. β2-glycoprotein I level is highly correlated with pseudocholinesterase activity.
The pattern of inheritance of phenotypes has been examined in 17 families with a total of 56 children. In all families, this pattern is consistent with the currently accepted mode of autosomal codominant transmission.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Agarwal, D. P., Srivastava, L. M., Benkmann, H. G., Goedde, H. W.: Studies on the polymorphism of C3, Tf and Bg in Down's syndrome and other diseases. Humangenetik 29, 23–28 (1975)
Atkin, J., Rundle, A. T.: Serum β2-glycoprotein I phenotype frequencies in an English population. Humangenetik 21, 81–84 (1974)
Augener, W.: Immunanalyse von Glykoproteinen. In: Proceedings of the 12th Colloquium: Protides of the biological fluids, Bruges 1964, H. Peeters, ed., pp. 363–371. Amsterdam-London-New York: Elsevier 1965
Cleve, H.: Genetic studies on the deficiency of β2-glycoprotein I I of human serum. Humangenetik 5, 294–304 (1968)
Cleve, H., Rittner, C.: Further family studies on the genetic control of β2-glycoprotein I concentration in human serum. Humangenetik 7, 93–97 (1969)
Dales, L. G., Friedman, G. D., Siegelaub, A. B., Seltzer, C. C.: Cigarette smoking and serum chemistry tests. J. Chronic Dis. 27, 293–307 (1974)
Haupt, H., Schwick, H. G., Störiko, K.: Über einen erblichen β2-Glycoprotein I-Mangel. Humangenetik 5, 291–293 (1968)
Koppe, A. L., Walter, H., Chopra, V. P., Bajatzadeh, M.: Investigations on the genetics and population genetics of the β2-glycoprotein I polymorphism. Humangenetik 9, 164–171 (1970)
Li, C. C.: Human Genetics: Principles and methods. New York: McGraw-Hill 1961
Mancini, G., Vaerman, J. P., Carbonara, A. O., Heremans, J. F.: A single radial-diffusion method for the immunological quantitation of proteins. In: Proceedings of the 11th Colloquium: Protides of the biological fluids, Bruges 1963, H. Peeters, ed., pp. 370–373. Amsterdam-New York-London: Elsevier 1964
Propert, D. N., Brackenridge, C. J.: The relation of sex, age, smoking status, birth rank and parental ages to pseudocholinesterase activity and phenotypes in a sample of Australian Caucasian adults. Humangenetik 32, 181–188 (1976)
Schultze, H. E., Heide, K., Haupt, H.: Über ein bisher unbekanntes niedermolekulares β2-Globulin des Humanserums. Naturwissenschaften 48, 719 (1961)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Propert, D.N. The relation of sex, smoking status, birth rank, and parental age to β2-glycoprotein I levels and phenotypes in a sample of Australian Caucasian adults. Hum Genet 43, 281–288 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00278835
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00278835