The Plasma Proteins in Disease

Abstract

Publisher Summary Normal human blood plasma contains an extremely complex mixture of proteins that includes simple proteins, lipoproteins, glycoproteins, and numerous other distinct protein components. The composition of the plasma in disease appears to be even more complex. The studies on plasma proteins in disease are carried out largely by neutral-salt precipitation and by electrophoretic analysis. Other methods, such as immunochemical techniques and ultracentrifugation, are also used. These procedures yield crude fractional separations, which are reproducible when applied by standardized technique and often helpful as first approximations but cannot satisfactorily resolve the plasma proteins. However, over the years, considerable progress in the characterization of the proteins in normal human plasma has been noticed because of improved chemical, electrophoretic, and immunochemical methods and by refinements in amino acid analyses. This chapter summarizes significant data made available by these recent developments. Some disorders, such as multiple myeloma, nephrosis, cirrhosis, kala azar, and lymphogranuloma venereum, exhibit marked disturbances in plasma proteins. Systematic surveys of the plasma proteins in a great variety of other disorders, however, indicate that many diseases are not accompanied by any significant alteration in the plasma protein pattern.