Abstract: Human interferon alpha 1 and alpha 2 gene have been found to have three alleles. Interferon alpha 1 has three alleles: IFNαD, IFNα1 and IFNα1/158Val, while interferon alpha 2 has three alleles: IFNα2a, IFNα2b and IFNα2c. But to date, there is not the research about interferon α1 and α2 allele composition in the genomic DNA from Chinese healthy Han population. The aim of this study is to investigate the distribution of these two interferon gene variants in Chinese Han population. The white blood cell genomic DNA from 100 healthy Chinese Han subjects who randomly selected was extracted. Gene fragments of interferon alpha1 and interferon alpha2 were amplified by self-designed primers using PCR method. The nucleotide sequences of amplified interferon α1 and interferon α2 gene fragments were determined by first generation full automatic DNA sequencing. Sequencing analysis showed that only IFNα1 and IFNα2b gene was detected in 100 Chinese healthy subjects, and all of the volunteers had identical nucleotide sequences in the coding region of the both interferon α subtype gene fragments. And no other variants of the interferon alpha1 and interferon alpha2 genes were detected in these Chinese subjects. This study suggested that IFN α1 and IFN α2b were the dominant alleles of interferon a1 and interferon a2 of Chinese Han people, respectively, which were suitable for Chinese people to use in clinic.

Key words: interferon alpha1, interferon alpha2, allele, gene sequencing