Biological and clinical significance of haptoglobin polymorphism in humans

Abstract excerpt

Haptoglobin is a hemoglobin-binding protein expressed by a genetic polymorphism as three major phenotypes: 1-1, 2-1, and 2-2. Most attention has been paid to determining haptoglobin phenotype as a genetic fingerprint used in forensic medicine. More recently, several functional differences between haptoglobin phenotypes have been demonstrated that appear to have important biological and clinical consequences....