THE TURNOVER OF HEMOGLOBINS A, F, AND A2 IN THE PERIPHERAL BLOOD OF THREE PATIENTS WITH THALASSEMIA*

Abstract

Three adult men with apparently homozygous thalassemia of intermediate degree were given glycine-2-C14 intravenously. The specific activity of carbon14 in their individual hemoglobins A, F, and A2 was measured in serial samples taken over periods of 3-4 months. From an assessment within a given patient of the life spans of each of the hemoglobins, A and A2 exhibited very similar turnover rates which were in each case more rapid than that of F. In one patient a substantial fraction of red cells rich in hemoglobin A exhibited a half life of only one day. The cellular distribution of hemoglobins A and F are therefore unequal in thalassemia. Those red cells richest in hemoglobin F achieve the longest survival in the circulation. The close genetic linkage of hemoglobins A and A2 apparently results in a more uniform cellular distribution.