Allelic differences in hemolytic activity and protein concentration of BF molecules are found in association with particular HLA haplotypes

After separating the *F and *S alleles by electrophoresis the allele-specific hemolytic activity was detected by agarose overlay method using the programmable densitometer for scanning. The hemolytic activity of BF allotypes was analyzed from 81 individuals. In thirteen FS heterozygous serum samples BF F had lower hemolysis than BF S. Four FF homozygous samples also exhibited lower hemolysis than a homozygous control sample. The low hemolytic activity of F in FS heterozygotes was not due to decreased protein concentrations relative to S. On the contrary, BF F was associated with higher protein concentration than BF S. The relative quantitation of the allele specific BF protein was done by crossed immunoelectrophoresis. BF F with low hemolytic activity but with high protein concentration associated strongly with HLA B35 phenotype and the family material confirmed the association with the haplotypes A3, Cw4, B35, DR1, BFFB, C4A3BQO (or A2BQO, A3,2BQO). The results suggest that particular MHC haplotypes contain a factor B allele with encoding for poor hemolytic activity or that MHC haplotype specific regulatory elements affect pre- or post-translational activity levels.