| hemoglobin | <cell biology, haematology> Four subunit globular oxygen carrying protein of the erythrocytes of vertebrates and some invertebrates. It is a conjugated protein containing four haem groups and globin. There are two alpha and two beta chains (very similar to myoglobin) in adult humans, the haem moiety (an iron containing substituted porphyrin) is firmly held in a nonpolar crevice in each peptide chain. There are four globin polypeptide chains, designated alpha, beta, gamma, delta in the adult. Each is composed of several hundred amino acids. (08 Mar 2000) |
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| persistence | 1. The tendency of a cell to continue moving in one direction: an internal bias on the random walk behaviour that cells exhibit in isotropic environments. 2. Of viruses that persist in a cell population, animal, plant or population for long periods often in a nonreplicating form, by such strategies as integration into host DNA, immunological suppression or mutation into forms with slow replication. (18 Nov 1997) |
| hereditary persistence of foetal haemoglobin | <haematology> Hereditary persistence of foetal haemoglobin is a genetic condition where adult types of haemoglobin fail to develop and the types of haemoglobin the individual had as a foetus remains present well past the point when they would normally have stopped being produced. (09 Oct 1997) |