Is immunochemical determination of haptoglobin phenotype dependent?

Immunochemical methods have been used to determine the concentration of haptoglobins. The dependence on the phenotype was tested with highly purified Hp 2-1, Hp 2-2 and Hp 1-1, by immunonephelometry and radial immunodiffusion (RID). Measurements with three different instruments: automated immunonephelometer (AIP, Technicon), laser nephelometer (LN, Behring) and immunochemistry system (ICS, Beckman) were performed. For each type of apparatus antisera against a pool of haptoglobins were provided by the respective manufacturers. Some experiments were done with an antiserum to the haptoglobin heavy chain prepared in the laboratory. This study shows that haptoglobin determination depends neither on the physical geometry of the instruments or on the type of antiserum used in this work. In contrast, the data display a dependence on haptoglobin phenotype. When Hp 2-1, the most common phenotype, is taken as a standard, the values obtained for Hp 2-2 are in good agreement with those obtained for Hp 2-1. However, the values obtained for Hp 1-1 are overestimated unless they are corrected by an experimental factor which has been determined in this study.