Hemoglobin J in an American Caucasian family of Swedish ancestry.

H EMOGLOBIN J was first reported in an American Negro family by Thorup et al.’ in 1956. Subsequently, it has been found in Indonesians,2’ East Indians,4’5 French-Canadians,6 Chinese,7 a Negro-Caucasian,5 and most recently in a family of Hawaiian-Chinese-Caucasian ancestry.’ The hemoglobin “Liberian I” described by Robinson et al.’” was formerly’ designated as hemoglobin J but recently has been found to behave differently than J both in electrophoresis and in resin chromatography, and it is now known as hemoglobin N.” The hemoglobin originally reported by Cabannes et al.’2 as J was subsequently changed to K.’3 The purpose of this present communication is to report the hemoglobin J trait in an American Caucasian family of Swedish ancestry. Electrophoretically, at pH 8.6, hemoglobin J moves faster than hemoglobins A and K,’ ’ btit more slowly than hemoglobins H, I, or N) .H At pH 6.5, it moves toward the cathode between hemoglobins A and I. In resin chromatography, hemoglobin J does not separate from hemoglobin A.2