Distribution of haptoglobins in different dialect groups of Chinese, Malays and Indians in Singapore

A total of 870 subjects comprising 524 Chinese (from different dialect groups), 231 Malays and 115 Tamil Indians were investigated for the distribution of haptoglobin types and ABO blood groups. Haptoglobins were typed by PAG electrophoresis using discontinuous buffer system. The frequencies of Hp,1 Hp2 and Hp0 were found to be 0.330, 0.670 and 0.029 in Chinese; 0.298, 0.702 and 0.004 in Malays; and 0.167, 0.833 and 0.009 in Indians. The Hainanese had the highest frequency of Hp1 (0.375) followed by Cantonese (0.348), Teochew (0.333) and Hakkas (0.288). The distribution of all the phenotypes of haptoglobin was at equilibrium in all the population groups studied. No association of ABO blood groups was detected with the haptoglobin types. However, there was an excess of AB blood group in persons carrying Hp2 compared with those with Hp1.