An analysis of some hemoglobin and haptoglobin phenotypes in Blantyre, Malawi.

Samples of blood and sera were obtained from unrelated adolescent and adult Bantus who were clinical patients at the Central Hospital. Males and females were pooled together for analysis. Hemolysates were analyzed by starch-gel electrophoresis methods using Tris-EDTA-borate buffer at pH 8.6 [1] and by cellulose-acetate electrophoresis in the same basic buffer system. Benzidine was used for staining. The hemoglobin solubility test [2] enabled distinction between Hb S and other possible hemoglobins with the same electrophoretic mobility. For the analysis of haptoglobins, sera were run on starch-gel electrophoresis using the discontinuous buffer system of Poulik [3] and benzidine stain.