in Unipolar Major Depression

Objective: Studies from the authors ’ laboratory have shown that major depression is ac-companied by significantly increased plasma concentrations of positive acute-phase proteins such as haptoglobin. Haptoglobin is characterized by a molecular variation with three known phenotypes (Hp I-1, Hp 2-1, and Hp 2-2). This study investigated haptoglobin plasma levels and phenotype and gene frequencies in unipolar major depression. Method: Haptoglobin plasma levels of 22 healthy volunteers, 32 patients with minor depression, and 72 patients with major depression were determined by means of a laser nephelometric method. Hapto-globin phenotyping ofthese 126 subjects and 200 healthy blood donors was also carried out. Results: The patients with major depression exhibited significantly higher haptoglobin plasma levels than the healthy comparison subjects and the patients with minor depression. Subjects with the haptoglobin phenotype Hp 2-2 had significantly lower haptoglobin levels than the phenotype Hp 1-1 and Hp 2-1 carriers. The frequencies ofhaptoglobin phenotypes Hp 2-1 (61. 1 %) and Hp 2-2 (20.8%) in the patients with major depression were significantly higher and lower, respectively, than the frequencies in the normal population (i.e., the blood donors: 48.0 % and 37.0%, respectively). The frequency ofthe Hp-i gene was significantly greater i