[Differentiation of selected abnormal hemoglobin by PCR-RFLP method]

Abnormal hemoglobin is one of the most frequent genetic disorder, of which about 700 variants have been reported in the world. Some abnormal hemoglobins such as HbS and HbC are endemic among limited human populations. We have found five subjects with abnormal hemoglobin in routine hematology analysis using an automated system Sysmex NE-7000. We isolated genomic DNA from the peripheral blood leukocyte of each subject, and amplified a 558 bp fragment of DNA including the entire exons 1 and 2 as well as intron 1 of the beta-globin gene. The amplified DNA fragments were subjected to direct sequencing by the dideoxy termination method on an automated DNA sequencer. The sequence analysis showed the abnormalities including HbA/C, HbS/C, HbE/E, and HbA/G-Szuhu. In the present study, we report a simple method for the mutual differentiation of these abnormal hemoglobins using restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method. Digestion of the amplified fragments described above with a restriction enzyme MnlI gave different RFLP patterns for HbA, HbC or S, HbE, and for HbG-Szuhu. RFLP using another enzyme, DdeI, could distinguish for HbS from HbC.