ABO-Hp Interaction and Unexplained Infertility

Abstract

After Ritter and Hinkelmann, Kirk and his Colleagues Kirk also reported that in matings where the father is in-compatible with the mother with respect to the ABO groups, the children show a higher frequency of the Hp1 gene. The possible explanation was that Hp1 gene is more efficient than Hp2 in, removing dissolved haemoglobin from the plasma and conserving the contained iron and hence in cases where foetuses or children are affected by haemolytic disease due to foetal A or B inherited from the father, one who is of type Hp1-1 should have the best, and one who is Hp2-2 the worst, chance of survival. However, because Haemolytic disease of the new born due to anti-A or anti-B is rarely fatal, at was later recognized Kirk that the iron conservation theory was unlikely to be correct. In another study by Vana and Steinberg, it was reported that haptoglobin-ABO interaction is not clearly related to ABO incompatibility but suggested to study the relationship between ABO and haptoglobin phenotypes directly.