Genetic polymorphism of properdin factor B (BF) was investigated in sera from 259 healthy individuals living in Guangzhou, southern China, by means of high voltage agarose gel electrophoresis followed by immunofixation. Besides the common phenotypes, SS, FS, FF and SS07, two rare heterozygous phenotypes tentatively named as SSG1 and SFG2 were observed. The allele frequencies estimated for BF*S, BF~'F, BF*S07, BF*SG1 and BF*FG2 were 0.8668, 0.1197, 0.0077, 0.0019 and 0.0039, respectively. Family data indicated an autosomal, codominant inheritance for the BF*FG2 allele.

ôGS•ô Results obtained in a joint Japanese-Chinese field study in Hainan

SummaryThe distribution of phenotypes for properdin factor B (BF) has been investigated in 50 IDDM patients and 52 NIDDM patients living in Guangzhou, southern China, using high voltage agarose gel electrophoresis followed by immunofixation. A significant decrease in the frequency of BF F positive patients (p<0.01) and an increase in the gene frequency of BF*S (p<0.005) were found in IDDM as compared to 259 normal controls. The relative risk for the BF F positive patients in IDDM was 0.15. On the other hand, no significant association was observed between BF types and NIDDM.