Blood serum protein-bound carbohydrate after injury.

In earlier publications (Keyser, 1949, 1950) we reported increases in the level of a substance giving the tryptophane-perchloric acid reaction (Cohen, 1944; Seibert, Pfaff, and Seibert, 1948) in the blood serum of six burn cases. No attempt was made at the time to identify the reacting substance, which is generally assumed to be a polysaccharide. The present investigation was undertaken to find out whether a rise in the level of serum protein-bound carbohydrate (protein sugar, non-glucosamine polysaccharide) after injury could be demonstrated by a more specific method and, if so, how much of it is contributed by the mucoprotein fraction studied by Winzler, Devor, Mehl, and Smyth (1948). It is possible that this mucoprotein fraction consists largely of the polypeptide-like substances occurring in trichloroacetic acid filtrates of serum (Hahn, 1921; Wolff, 1921) and precipitable therefrom by tungstic or phosphotungstic acid. The serum level of these polypeptides was reported to be raised after surgical operations and after burning (Cristol and Puech, 1929: Fiessinger, 1934; Goiffon and Spaey, 1934a, 1934b; Duval, Roux, and Goiffon, 1934). For convenience the carbohydrate measured will be referred to as " protein sugar."