In contrast we report here that in a control sample of 95 healthy adult male Caucasians the SAA1 gamma allele occurs at the much lower frequency of 5.3% and that, among 41 patients with juvenile chronic arthritis (JCA) and AA amyloidosis, there was a highly significantly increased frequency of the SAA1 alpha allele (90.2%), and particularly homozygosity for this allele (80.5%), compared both to the healthy controls (75.8% and 57.9% respectively) and to 8 JCA cases without amyloid (56.3% and 12.5%).