The electrophoretic pattern of hemoglobin in newborn babies, and abnormalities of hemoglobin F synthesis in adults.

On routine electrophoretic analyses on filter paper and starch gel in an alkaline or neutral medium, no abnormal hemoglobin fractions were found in the blood of 600 newborn infants or their mothers. Trace amounts of hemoglobin Barts were noted in many of the blood samples from newborns when the starch gels (phosphate buffer pH 7.0) were stained with a benzidine/H(2)O(2) reagent. In one infant, precocious cessation of synthesis of hemoglobin F was postulated to account for the small amounts of this hemoglobin found in a cord-blood specimen. Analysis of 15,000 blood samples from adults revealed two instances in which the hemoglobin F level was 20 and 35%, respectively. The former was attributed to a hereditary persistence of hemoglobin F, while the latter was associated with acute leukemia.In an addendum, the finding of an infant with an abnormal hemoglobin variant, resembling in many of its properties hemoglobin F Texas, is reported.