An electrophoretic study of plasma and plasma fractions of normal and injured rats.

The development of the electrophoretic procedure has led a number of in%-estigators to study the distribution of rat plasma proteins by this method. Rat serum or plasma does not yield the distinct pat,terns that are obtained with human plasma. Moore, Levin, and Leathem (1) could not observe the cr-globulin fraction in normal rat serum dialyzed against phosphate buffer at pH 7.4. After hypophysectomy (1) and thyroidectomy or thiouracil feeding in rats (2), the a-globulin appeared in the serum (pH 7.4). When normal rat serum was examined at pH 8.5, the a-globulin component was seen. Deutsch and Goodloe (3) found no distinct component in the region of t,he a-globulin at pH 8.6 Although five components have been described (1, 4), the boundaries are too indistinct for accurate analysis. Experiences with the electrophoretic analysis of normal rat plasma in this laboratory were unsatisfactory and were similar to those of other investigators. In order to study the protein components more thoroughly, fractionation was undertaken according to the procedures recommended by Cohn and his associat,es (5). The present, investigation is concerned with the analyses of whole and fractionated plasma obtained from normal and injured rats.