The imbalance of chain synthesis in hemoglobin F.

The synthesis of Hb F has been found to be unbalanced in a number of conditions, including homozygous HPFH, sickle-cell anemia, and normal term cord bloods. In this study, the counts from the pre-gamma and pre-alpha zones of the chain separation chromatogram are considered to be modified gamma and alpha chains, respectively, and are included in calculating the gamm/alpha ratios for cord blood and sickle-cell blood. The gamma chain is labeled about 52% as efficiently as the alpha chain in reticulocytes. It is possible that nu chain synthesis is balanced in the bone marrow, but subsequently becomes unbalanced in the reticulocyte.