An Immunochemical Study of the Albumins of Serum, Urine, Ascitic Fluid and Edema Fluid in the Nephrotic Syndrome 12

With the introduction of the Tiselius apparatus, the Howe method for the separation of albumin and globulins in serum and urine was shown to be in serious error, particularly where the proportion of albumin was low (12). Longsworth and MacInnes (13) and Luetscher (12) showed that the albumin content was very low in nephrotic serum and that the pattern of the urinary proteins in the nephrotic syndrome resembled that of serum. These findings would serve to explain many of the abnormalities of the albumins obtained by salt fractionation of nephrotic serum. However, Luetscher did observe that in nephrotic serum and urine the ratio of the two components of albumin separated by electrophoresis at pH 4.0 was reversed from the normal and he postulated an abnormality in the metabolism of albumin in this syndrome.