Pergamon Press Ltd . Printed in Great Britain . SERUM PROTEINS AND TERATOGENESISI

Observations have been reported which suggest that altered electrophoretic patterns of the serum proteins may accompany pregnancies that terminate in the birth of abnormal offspring . The teratogenic disazo dye, trypan blue, has been shown to cause alterations in the proteins of the maternal serum of pregnant rabbits and in the protein composition of the 9-day rabbit embryo yolk sac fluid (1,2,3) . These papers report a significant increase in the alpha and beta globulins . An "abnormal" protein band has been reported in male rats treated with heavy doses of trypan blue (4,5) . This "abnormal" protein band was subsequently shown to represent an alteration in a normally occurring alpha çlobulin component of rat serum (6,7) . Evidence has been presented that serum proteins of the fetal rat are altered when the mother is treated with a teratogenic dose of trypan blue (6) . Significant differences are reported between control and experimental fetuses in beta 4lobulins, alpha-1 olobulins and albumin . Abnormal electrophoretic patterns of serum proteins have keen reported in human pregnancies (S) . An abnormal outcome was observed in 78% of those women exhibiting an abnormal electrophoretic pattern of serum proteins at same time