CONTENT AND COMPOSITION OF THE MUCOPROTEIN FRAC- TION OF HUMAN SERUM (SEROMUCOID) IN DISEASE, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO HEMATOLOGIC

Significant alterations of content, distribution, electrophoretic mobility and, possibly, composition of carbohydrate-containing proteins in many dis-eases have been described by both chemical and electrophoretic methods. From a summary of the pertinent observations in the literature (Table I), it may be concluded that the carbohydrate content of proteins is high in many disease states; also, that the electrophoretic distribution of poly-saccharides or their chemical precipitation with the various protein fractions may often be abnor-mal. Thus, the study of carbohydrate-containing proteins of serum is a potentially important and significant tool in the detection of basic molecular alterations, which may be significant in the un-derstanding of the pathogenesis of disease. We have attempted in a number of disease states a systematic study of the content and in the chemical composition of one type of carbohydrate-containing proteins, the mucoproteins. Because of the major interest of our Institution and our previous work on the subject particular emphasis was directed to hematologic disorders. The se-rum mucoprotein fraction was selected for this study because: a) it shows significant and wide variations in disease (Table I); b) fairly reliable techniques are available for its isolation and for the analysis of some of its constituents. Total muco