Abstract
Bilirubin (BR) which is known to bind strongly to human serum albumin (HSA) (1,2,3) and to lipids, lipoproteins and cell membranes (4,5) can be considered, in the body to be distributed according to the equilibrium: $$ BR - HSA \rightleftharpoons BR(free) \rightleftharpoons BR - tissue $$ The high BR level in infants suffering from neonatal jaundice exposes them to the risk of kernicterus in which irreversible tissue damage results from the uptake of BR by brain cells (6). Although phototherapy, in recent years, has proved extremely effective in the reduction of BR levels in jaundiced infants, the precise mechanism for this process is still not fully understood and has provoked much photochemical study (7). One interpretation postulates self sensitised photooxidation (8) and another proposes photoisomerisation (9,10) of BR.KeywordsHuman Serum AlbuminNeonatal JaundiceLaser Flash PhotolysisDifferential Absorption SpectrumMethanolic AmmoniaThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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