The role of hemoglobin heme loss in Heinz body formation: studies with a partially heme-deficient hemoglobin and with genetically unstable hemoglobins

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Abstract

A number of mutant hemoglobins are inordinately unstable, denaturing in circulating red cells into Heinz bodies, resulting in congenital Heinz body hemolytic anemia (CHBHA). We have emphasized that most such hemoglobins involve amino acid substitutions at sites neighboring the heme group of the β-polypeptide chain, and have shown that heme binding to globin is diminished thereby. Thus, hemes were progressively lost from four unstable hemoglobins (Köln, Hammersmith, San Francisco, and Zürich) as they precipitated into Heinz bodies at 50°C.

Authors

Harry S. Jacob, Kaspar H. Winterhalter