Subtyping of Hp: Common and rare phenotypes

Abstract

Many techniques for Hp subtyping on protein level have hitherto been described (Connell et al. 1962, Pastewka et al. 1973). They either combine a purification step with subsequent electrophoretical separation and protein staining or include Hp identification by peroxidase staining (Linke 1984) or immunoblotting (Teige et al. 1985). Electrophoresis of reduced and alkylated Hp suffered from an unsatisfactory separation of the gene products hpα2. This was greatly improved by Shibata and coworkers (1982), who introduced an IEF technique, that clearly separates the gene products hp 2FS (SF), hp 2SS, hp 2FF, hp 1F and hp 1S. This IEF technique together with a batchwise ion exchange chromatography was used in this work to investigate gene frequencies of Hp subtypes in a Southwestern German population. Additionally separation of Hp chains in hybrid IEF will be presented and discussed. Furthermore a Hpα2-variant and two different Hp Johnson subtypes will be described.