Red cell volume distribution curves and intracellular globin chain precipitation in the alpha-thalassaemic mouse, Hbath-J.

Red cell volume distribution curves were studied in alpha-thalassaemic mice (Hbath-J/+ mice) and normal mice (+/+ mice) of various ages. Individual Hbath-J/+ mice could not be reliably distinguished from their +/+ littermates on the basis of modal cell volume either at birth or during the first 3 weeks of life. However, between the ages of 4 and 30 weeks Hbath-J/+ mice displayed a degree of microcytosis that enabled them to be readily distinguished from their normal littermates using the criterion of modal red cell volume. Preliminary studies of alpha:beta globin chain synthesis ratios given by blood reticulocytes of Hbath-J/+ and +/+ mice after incubation with 3H-leucine for 5 min and 2 h suggest that there is little or no proteolysis of excess beta-chains in the alpha-thalassaemic mouse. Electron microscope studies revealed that the erythroblasts, marrow reticulocytes and circulating red cells of Hbath-J/+ but not +/+ mice contain stellate and branching intracytoplasmic inclusions, presumed to consist of precipitated beta-chains. These inclusions were ultrastructurally similar to the inclusions which have been previously reported in the erythroblasts and marrow reticulocytes of people with various alpha-thalassaemia syndromes. The proportion of erythropoietic cell profiles with inclusions was higher in Hbath-J/+ mice (in which two of the four alpha-globin genes are deleted) than in Thai patients with HbH disease (in whom there is usually a deletion of three of the four alpha-globin genes); this finding is probably related to a relatively low proteolytic capacity in the more mature mouse erythroid cells when compared with human cells. The presence of inclusion-containing red cells (mainly reticulocytes) in the peripheral blood of unsplenectomized Hbath-J/+ animals contrasts with the absence of such cells in unsplenectomized patients with alpha-thalassaemia I trait and HbH disease; this difference seems to be at least partly due to a poorly-developed pitting function in the mouse spleen.