Talk:Fetal hemoglobin

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[edit] fetal

fetal hemoglobin is said in the text to be composed of two gamma and two alpha subunits. the current picture shown in the article seems to show 2 subunits (each 7 alpha helices.) is this a discrepancy?Wilgamesh 19:10, 1 November 2005 (UTC)

I have the hardest time making heads or tails of those 3D ribbon diagrams of proteins, but I think you're right. It doesn't look nearly busy enough to be hemoglobin (compare with the image in the adult hemoglobin article). Could it be a single gamma subunit? (the part that makes fetal unique from adult) Hopefully the original author (or someone else who knows) will come along to clarify. Potatophysics 11:41, 27 January 2006 (UTC)
I believe the PDB I used to generate that image contains one alpha and one gamma subunit for a total of two subunits (i.e. one-half of a complete HbF protein). Should there be a PDB that represents the complete (i.e. all four subunits) protein, that one should be used instead. --David Iberri (talk) 12:15, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Dead Links

  1. Hemoglobin structure and function
  2. Hemoglobin F fact sheet
  3. Fetal hemoglobin [doc]

All these links are dead, is it possible that someone could rectify this? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Jameshrh (talk • contribs) 16:45, 10 May 2007 (UTC).

Common Blood Supply?!?! The article starts with a statement that the mother and foetus share a common blood suply. This seems to be contradicted almost immediately and certainly in the article on placenta. Please can someone knowledgeable clarify?!

[edit] Common blood supply

I have removed the opening sentence in the 'Overview' section that read 'Both the mother and fetus share a common blood supply' as this is clearly incorrect. Why would they have different types of Hb if they share the same blood supply? They do however share a common 'oxygen' supply but I'm not sure how this would have helped the article, it may have been oversimplifying things. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Tcal (talk • contribs) 12:27, August 21, 2007 (UTC).



[edit] Structure and genetics

Someone needs to seriously clean up structure and genetics. Pretty sure there are not two genes for the gamma subunit on chrom. 11.(I don't want to change it as I am only 95% sure) There is one gene for beta and one for gamma. The alpha subunits however do have two genes per chrom. I think the confusion is the original writer may have mixed up alpha and gamma?? maybe? Either way I added a sentence that says beta is on 11 too. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 132.192.12.5 (talk) 01:45, 21 February 2008 (UTC)