Incomplete functional deficiencies of the fourth (C4) and second (C2) components of complement in a patient with linear frontoparietal scleroderma and his family. Deficiencies determined by a gene not linked to human leukocyte antigen system.

Background: In a previous study, a patient suffering from linear frontoparietal scleroderma and some of his family members were found to have an incomplete functional deficiency of the second component (C2) of complement (C). In this study, the proband and the rest of his family members were investigated for functional deficiencies of C2 and the fourth component of C (C4). A search for null alleles of C2 (C2*Q0) and C4 (C4*Q0) was made to find out whether their occurrence is responsible for incomplete functional deficiencies.