Serum butyrylcholinesterase (CHE1) polymorphism in a Chilean population of mixed ancestry.

We estimated the allele frequencies of three variants of serum butyryl-cholinesterase, CHE1*U, CHE1*A and CHE1*F in an urban population of Santiago, Chile, resulting from a mixture of Amerindians with Europeans (mostly Spanish). The CHE1*A frequency was approximately that expected for this population but the incidence of CHE1*F was higher than previous studies would have predicted, probably because in this case more precise techniques were used for its detection. The finding of a CHE1 AK individual suggests that allele CHE1*K is also present at an appreciable frequency in this population.