Relative proportions of human hemoglobins A, S, C in individual erythrocytes of heterozygotes.

Inherited electrophoretic variants of hemoglobin in individual erythrocytes were separated by electrophoresis in ultrathin acid agar gels. The electropherograms were stained under a hood with hemoglobin specific chromogen, benzidine. Photomicrographs of the electropherograms were scanned with a recording densitometer. Relative quantities of the respective hemoglobins in individual erythrocytes were estimated by weighing the areas under the densitograph curves. The findings confirm that the intracellular proportions of Hb A and Hb S or Hb A and Hb C in heterozygotes are of heterogeneous distributions within a given population of cells. The tool of single cell electrophoresis may be useful for investigating relative quantities of other electrophoretically separable protein variants in individual erythrocytes.