IEF-microheterogeneity of human PK-R: applicability for prenatal diagnosis

Microheterogeneity of human erythrocyte pyruvate kinase (PK-R) can be obtained by isoelectric focusing (IEF) in ultrathin polyacrylamide gels followed by immunological visualization methods. Using this method to study whether a polymorphismus of PK-R occurs, we could not find any deviations from the normal PK pattern in the case of samples from 100 German donors as well as at a lower number of PK samples from European, African and Asian donors. Furthermore, we compared the IEF-pattern of PK mutants with that of normal new-borns and of foetal PK-samples. Our results show that IEF-microheterogeneity of PK may serve as a tool for prenatal diagnosis in the case of families which are effected by a severe PK deficiency.