Plasma-clearing effect of gastric mucin in healthy and atherosclerotic subjects under basal conditions.

Other substances, in addition to the heparin clearing factor, exert a plasma-clearing effect under experimental conditions. A mucin compound extracted from the pig gastric mucosa has recently been included among such substances. Its clearing effect, as evaluated by variations in plasma optical density, is as constant and evident as that of heparin, both in normal and atherosclerotic subjects under basal conditions. The resemblance in function between gastric mucin and heparin is accompanied by similarities in molecular structure between the 2 compounds. Gastric mucin may belong among the factors that under physiologic conditions regulate the transport and some phases of the intermediary metabolism of lipids.