Alpha 1 antitrypsin deficiency in two population groups in north Italy.

We determined the PiM, PiS and PiZ gene frequencies by isoelectric focusing in 9128 newborns from two major ethnic groups, an Italian and a German one, in the Northern part of Italy. In the Italian group the PiS allele frequency is 0.032, the PiZ = 0.015, in the German one 0.015 and 0.019 respectively. Nine ZZ, 2 SS, 10 SZ, 314 MZ and 307 MS were detected. In our two population groups the PiS reflects better than other alleles a close genetic relationship between our German population and studied groups in Austria and Germany.