Hemoglobin J

32 yo Asian female with the following hb electrophoresis.

Notice the peak at around 77 seconds which corresponds to the hemoglobin J peak. Electrophoretically, at pH 8.6, hemoglobin J moves faster than hemoglobins A and K, but more slowly than hemoglobins H, I, or N. The fast-moving nature of these hemoglobin variants result from substitution of a negatively charged aminoacid residue in either alpha, beta or gamma globin chains due to a mutation in the globin genes. Generally, these are clinically silent mutations and are mostly significant for their ability to cause falsely low HgA1c values.



Sharma A, Marwah S, Buxi G, Yadav RB. Falsely low HbA1c value due to a rare hemoglobin variant (HEMOGLOBIN J-MEERUT) - A family study. Indian J Pathol Microbiol 2012;55:270-1