Haptoglobin

Haptoglobin

Haptoglobin (HP) is a hemoglobin-binding protein with immunomodulatory properties. Its gene harbors a common polymorphism with 2 different alleles: HP1 and HP2. Allele HP2 and genotype HP22 has been shown to be overrepresented in different immune diseases like Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) and type 1 diabetes, and has also been found to be more frequent in patients with irritable bowel disease (ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease) than in healthy controls.