Foetal haemoglobin in the monkey

SOME well-known physico-chemical differences between human adult and fœtal haemoglobin prompted us to find if similar differences exist between haemoglobins from adult and new-born monkeys. The present communication describes the examination of the blood of 8 adult and 4 new-born monkeys (Macacus rhesus of North India) by the alkali resistance test and paper electrophoresis. Pregnant monkeys were obtained and were delivered in the cage to provide the new-born monkeys. Heart blood from the new-born and venous blood from the adult monkeys was collected in citrate solution. The alkali denaturation method of Singer et al. 1 was employed for determining the proportion of alkali-resistant haemoglobin. Electrophoresis was carried out in ‘Elphor’ apparatus using paper strip No. 2043 a Mg 1 at 250 V. for a period of 16 hr. in veronal buffer of pH 8.6 and ionic strength 0.05.