Serum Proteins in Africans

Abstract

IT has frequently been observed¹ that the serum globulin-level of apparently normal Africans is higher, and the albumin-level somewhat lower, than that of Europeans. Moreover, workers in this laboratory² have shown that there is a relation between mean red-cell count and serum protein-levels. Those Africans with the highest red-cell counts have a higher mean albumin-level and a lower globulin-level than those with lower red-cell counts. In this work, chemical methods^3,4 for separating and estimating the serum protein fractions were used. By these methods it appeared that the variation of the β-globulin fraction accounted for the greater part of the change in total globulin in the different red-cell-count groups.