ALPHA-1-ANTITRYPSIN, TRANSFERRIN AND HAPTOGLOBIN IN SMOKERS AND NON-SMOKERS

This paper presents data from a study of the distributions of alpha-1-antitrypsin (o.1-AT). haptoglobin (Hp) and transferrin (Tf) phenotypes, and of their corresponding serum levels in a group of 58 patients with chronic airflow limitation (CAL) and with an extensive history of cigarette smoking. The results were compared with those obtained for 202 normal healthy adults with no history of cigarette smoking.

Differences were observed in two of the three systems between patients and control subjects. The patients were found to have a 42% increase in the mean serum concentration of ol-AT and infrequency of the PiM3allele with a value of 0.069 compared with 0.032 in the controls.

The mean haptoglobin level in patients was 2.3 times that of the controls, and both Hpl-1 and Hp2-phenotypes showed almost identical amount of about 270 mg/100 ml, a finding which differs from the established additive effect of alleles Hp1' and Hp2. By contrast, the patients' mean concentration of transferrin was lower than that of the control group.

Thus, this study demonstrates that the effect of cigarette smoking was to increase the quantities of serum alpha-l-antitrypsin and haploglobin, a finding similar to previously published results. An hypothesis has been advanced to account for the increase.