FRACTIONATION OF THE SERUM AND PLASMA PROTEINS BY SALT PRECIPITATION IN INFANTS AND CHILDREN. 1. THE CHANGES WITH MATURITY AND AGE. 2. THE CHANGES IN GLOMERULONEPHRITIS. 3. THE CHANGES IN NEPHROSIS1

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Abstract
The serum and plasma protein fractions, separated by Na sulphate and phosphate precipitants, were studied in premature infants, fullterm newborn infants, older infants, and young children. Blood fibrin was also detd. The blood fibrin levels were constant at all ages, and equal to adult values. The total serum protein values rose with increasing maturity. Both the albumin and globulin fractions were involved in the increase, but there was a proportionately greater increase in the globulin fraction. Throughout all of infancy, there was a reduction in certain of the globulin fractions (probably [gamma] globulin). The serum and plasma protein fractions were detd. in children during the different clinical phases of glomerulonephritis. Plasma fibrin was elevated during the acute stage of the disease and returned to normal with healing. In the chronic phase of the disease, there was persistent elevation of the fibrin. In acute glomerulonephritis, there was a slight lowering of serum albumin. In the chronic stage of the disease, both serum albumin and globulin were reduced. In acute glomerulonephritis, there was an increase in a globulin sub-fraction ([gamma] globulin), which returned to its normal level with healing. This globulin subfraction was reduced in value in chronic nephritis. The relationships between the changes in plasma protein fractions and the alterations in rate of blood sedimentation in glomerulonephritis are discussed. The serum and plasma protein fractions were detd. during the different clinical stages of lipoid nephrosis. Plasma fibrin was elevated during the active phase of the disease. During the active phase of the disease, the well-known reductions in total protein and serum albumin, and the normal or slightly elevated serum globulin were encountered. A reduction in the globulin fraction, presumed to be [gamma] globulin, was found during the active disease, returning to a normal value with the subsidence of the acute edematous stage. This reduction in the globulin fraction was not of the same nature as that found in young infants. Evidence indicated that the low value for this globulin fraction in the nephrotic, in a large measure, resulted from an altered dispersion of the globulins, caused by the hyperlipemia of nephrosis. Other conditions in which hyperlipemia was present showed similar changes in globulin dispersion. The reduction of total serum albumin in the nephrotic and in the nephritic patient is largely due to a decrease in a labile subfraction of the albumin.