Diagnosis of Homozygous α-Thalassemia in Cultured Amniotic-Fluid Fibroblasts

Abstract
THE α-thalassemias in Asian populations are primarily caused by deletion of the α-globin structural genes.1 2 3 4 5 6 In the fatal condition of homozygous α-thalassemia associated with hydrops fetalis, all four normally present α-globin structural genes are deleted. The moderate hemolytic anemia, hemoglobin-H disease, is due to the deletion of three of the four structural genes. This disease results from the combination of heterozygous α-thalassemia (α-thalassemia-1) and the silent carrier state (α-thalassemia-2) in which two and one of these genes are deleted respectively. A radioactive DNA (cDNA) that is synthesized with reverse transcriptase and complementary to α-globin mRNA is used to quantitate α-globin . . .