Kiyomi Yamamoto

Hemoglobin Hijiyama: A New Fast-Moving Hemoglobin in a Japanese Family

A variant of hemoglobin A, named Hb Hijiyama, found in two generations of a Japanese family living in Hiroshima, Japan, has a higher anodal electrophoretic mobility than hemoglobin A; a gain of two negative charges per molecule is indicated. Fingerprinting and amino acid analysis showed the biochemical anomaly to be in the beta chain at residue 120, where lysine is replaced by glutamic acid. In the heterozygote carriers of the abnormal hemoglobin there is no apparent association with clinical or hematologic abnormalities.

Source of elevated serum mitochondrial creatine kinase activity in patients with malignancy

Mitochondrial creatine kinase (CK-mit) is increased in cancer tissues of the digestive tract. There is no difference in molecular weight, electrophoretic and kinetic properties between the isoenzymes extracted from the tumor and those from the adjacent normal tissues. High non-CK-M/total CK activity ratios in some sera from cancer patients probably reflect leakage of CK-mit from the tumor tissues.