Kohn (1958 and1960) and developed by other authors (Petrakis, Doherty, Grunbaum, and Atchley, 1962; Friedman, 1962;Afonso, 1962;Graham and Grunbaum, 1963). These have disadvantages, such as the requirement for special apparatus and staining procedures, or a failure to quantitate the A2 fraction. Bartlett (1963) obtained reproducible values for haemoglobin A2 in a small series of normal persons by eluting this fraction unstained.The following method has been used in this laboratory under routine conditions and has given satisfactory and reproducible results; it is technically simple, requires no staining, and employs apparatus available in most laboratories. Results can be obtained within 90 minutes of receiving a blood sample.
APPARATUS AND REAGENTSThe apparatus requires a power pack capable of supplying direct current up to 10 mA at 200 volts, a tank suitable for electrophoresis on cellulose acetate in the horizontal plane,' cellulose acetate strips 5 x 12 cm.,2 and a spectrophotometer with a narrow wavelength band at 413 my; the Unicam SP 600 or the Hilger ultra-violet spectrophotometer are suitable instruments.