Quantitative amount of alpha globin messenger RNA in the Haemoglobin H disease

Abstract

Hb H disease is the α-thalassemia occured from the combination of α-thalassemia 1 and α-thalassemia 2 gene (α-thal₁/ α-thal₂) or α-thalassemia 1 and Hemoglobin Constant Spring gene (α-thal₁/ Hb CS). Evidences from the clinical and hematological data showed that α-thal₁/ Hb CS is more severe than α-thal₁/ α-thal₂. The study to compare the amount of α globin mRNA in normal individual, patient with Hb α-thal₁/ α-thal₂ and with α-thal₁/ Hb CS types. Total cellular RNA were extracted from peripheral blood by phenol/chloroform extraction and hybridized with α JW101 or β JW102 recombinant plasmid to quantitate α or β globin mRNA spectively. The average α/β globin mRNA ratio in α-thal₁/ α-thal₂ and α-thal₁/ Hb CS were 0.426 ± 0.04 and 0.335 ± 0.02 respectively and has been significantly different at the 0.001 level from t test.