Hemoglobin and Cyanide

[William Tivol]

Bob Hoesch (Bob_Hoesch at fws.gov) wrote:
: If one is using hemoglobin as a marker for analyzing population   
: genetics, a standard procedure is to treat the blood sample with low 
: concentrations of cyanide prior to IEF (isoelectric focusing).  This 
: results in the elimination of "spurious" bands, and apparently makes    
: the resulting banding patterns amenable to genetic analysis. I've heard    
: this procedure described as "reduction of methemoglobin" (reduction of     
: the oxidized iron back to the reduced state), but this doesn't make sense 
: to me in terms of the chemistry. Can someone explain what is happening in 
: this cyanide-induced reduction in the number of hemoglobin bands?  How could 
: cyanide reduce Fe3+ to Fe2+?  
Dear Bob,
	Just a thought, but Fe3+ + CN- = Fe(2+)CN.
				Yours,
				Bill Tivol