Distribution of ORM1, C6, C7 and APO C-II Allele Frequencies in Populations from Mainland Italy and Sardinia

The genetic variation of the human plasma proteins ORM1, C6, C7 and APO C-II was investigated by isoelectric focusing followed by immunoblotting in populations from mainland Italy and Sardinia. The frequencies of ORM1*1 were 0.621 and 0.564, while those of C6*A were 0.657 and 0.706 on mainland Italy and in Sardinia, respectively. In the Roman sample, 8 heterozygotes with C6 variant alleles were encountered, while none were observed in Sardinians. For C7 and APO C-II a number of heterozygotes with the rare alleles C7*2 and APO C-II*2 were found, but their frequency did not reach polymorphic levels in either population. The two populations showed a significant difference in the gene frequencies distribution for ORM1.