Abstract
The recently developed capability to separate and quantify each of several proteins concurrently in single red cells presents an opportunity to test for biological variations in intercellular distribution of a protein as well as the extent of correlation between quantities of gene products derived from a single cell genome. In this preliminary study, erythrocytes from 30 sickle trait subjects were subjected to single cell electrophoresis and the resulting hemoglobin electropherograms were scanned by a recording densitometer. There was found to be heterogeneity among subjects in the form of the intercellular distribution of Hb S fraction, as tested by g statistics for skewness and kurtosis. Additionally, in all subjects there was statistically significant correlation between relative quantities of cellular Hb A and Hb S as measured concurrently in the same cell. These observations provide a basis for future research on the hypothesis that the form of the distribution of hemoglobin among erythrocytes is a heritable variable.