The Human Hemoglobins in Health and Disease

Abstract

IN 1949 Pauling and his associates1 described sickle-cell hemoglobin and introduced into medicine the concept of the molecular disease, a concept that implies that certain diseases are caused by genetically determined abnormalities of protein synthesis. Progress in the study of the human hemoglobins, and of the molecular diseases that they cause, has been so rapid in the past six years that it seems advisable to review the available information in this field and to attempt a correlation of the many clinical and hematologic observations related to these syndromes.Several excellent reviews of the biochemical aspects of the abnormal hemoglobins have . . .