Detection and quantitation of the fetal hemoglobin variant Hb F-Malta-I in adults.

A variant of fetal hemoglobin (Hb F-Malta-I) has been detected and quantitated in adult blood with a sensitive radioimmunoassay employing monospecific antisera. The concentration of Hb-F-Malta-I was 0.002-0.05%, with an average value of 0.011%. The ratio of Hb F-Malta-I/Hb F in adults was about 4.8%, compared to a ratio of about 27% in the newborn. Since the F-Malta-I variant is a product of a mutated Ggamma locus, which is one of the nonallelic structural genes directing the gamma chain synthesis, its presence in blood of adults shows that the synthesis of this gene is not completely suppressed after birth, as was previously suggested.