Two alpha-chain hemoglobin variants, Hb Broussais and Hb Cemenelum, characterized by cation-exchange HPLC, isoelectric focusing, and peptide sequencing.

We here report the characteristics of two rare alpha-chain hemoglobin (Hb) variants. The variants were found during quantification of HbA1c by cation-exchange HPLC with the Diamat glycohemoglobin analyzer. They were further characterized by isoelectric focusing and PolyCAT A cation-exchange chromatography. The structure of the abnormal Hbs was established by amino acid analysis after separation of the globin chains by reversed-phase chromatography, digestion with trypsin, separation of the peptides by reversed-phase chromatography, and amino acid sequencing. These studies showed that the two variants were Hb Broussais [alpha 90 (FG2)Lys-->Asn] and Hb Cemenelum [alpha 92 (FG4)Arg-->Trp].