[Hemoglobin E: report of the first 2 cases in French subjects]. / Hémoglobinose E: présentation des deux premières observations chez des sujets d'origine française.

Hemoglobin E has been discovered casually in the blood of two French donors: one coming from the Alsace region, the other one coming from the Champagne region. In the two cases, the hemoglobin E is in an heterozygote state and takes the place of 33 per cent of the total haemoglobin in the first and 24 per cent in the second. We investigated in their families and found that other members of these families had hemoglobin E. Each time, it was associated with a microcytosis and polycythaemia without anemy or iron deficiency. The red cells morphology shows many microspherocytes and target-cells. There is no relationship between these two families and the research of an asiatic antecedent proved negative. These two observations give a supplementary proof that the geographic repartition of the hemoglobin E is larger than what we read in the first publications and shows the interest to study the hemoglobin of unexplained polycythaemia with microcytes in the blood of blood donors.

[Restimulation of anti-rhesus antibodies and anti-HLA immunization]. / Restimulation d'anticorps anti-rhésus et immunisation anti-HLA.

Anti-Rh antibodies were restimulated in 32 previously immunized volunteers by injection of small amounts (2 ml) of Rh + fresh blood. The anti-HLA immunization was investigated during this procedure. None of the 10 men developed anti-HLA antibodies. Contrarily 45% of the 22 women showed an anti-HLA antibody before or during the immunization procedure. The HLA type of the husband and of the injected blood was performed to try to explain the specificity of the anti-HLA antibodies.