Survey of Clinical Significance of Serum Mucoprotein Level

RECENT reports have stimulated interest in factors responsible for the maintenance of the serum mucoprotein (M) level in health and disease. Winzler and colleagues noted some years ago that a marked increase in the serum M level occurs as a result of inflammatory1or neoplastic disease* and after experimental tissue injury.1This response in the serum M concentration was presumed to be related to factors of a nonspecific or unknown nature involved in cellular proliferation and tissue breakdown. Several investigators have now demonstrated that divergent changes in the serum mucoprotein (M) level may be observed in patients with certain nosologically or pathologically related diseases. Thus, among the neoplastic diseases, multiple myeloma3was associated more frequently with a reduction than with an elevation in the serum M concentration. A rising M level was usually observed in the presence of most forms of progressive obstructive biliary tract disease, whereas