Genetic polymorphism of C7 in a Japanese population has been described, using polyacrylamide gel isoelectric focusing electrophoresis followed by an electrophoretic blotting technique. Phenotypes of C7 were classified into six common patterns, and observed phenotypes were produced by autosomal codominant at a single locus with three alleles. Three common alleles, designated C7*B, C7*M and C7*A, were found, and gene frequencies calculated from 494 individuals showed C7*B = 0.858, C7*M = 0.096 and C7*A = 0.046, respectively. It is noteworthy that both C7*M and C7*A have polymorphic frequencies in the Japanese population. The distribution of phenotypes fitted the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. Results indicate that the electrophoretic blotting technique, which has high specificity and sensitivity, is applicable in the study of heterogeneity of protein antigens.

Genetic polymorphism of C6 in the Japanese population has been described using polyacrylamide gel isoelectric focusing electrophoresis followed by the electrophoretic blotting technique, and haplotype analysis between C6 and C7 has also been investigated. In 565 plasma samples five different common patterns and three rare variant patterns were observed, and these were controlled by autosomal codominance at a single locus with three common and one rare alleles. These alleles were designated C6*B, C6*A, C6*B2, and C6*M, and gene frequencies were estimated to be 0.50265, 0.43186, 0.06018, and 0.00531 for C6*B, C6*A, C6*B2, and C6*M, respectively. It is noteworthy that C6*B2 has a polymorphic frequency in the Japanese population. The distribution of phenotypes fitted the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. Two combinations between C6 and C7 alleles, namely C6B-C7B and C6M-C7B, were shown to be in significant positive linkage disequilibrium. The presence of allelic combinations showing linkage disequilibrium suggests the close proximity between the C6 and C7 loci.