Abstract
Summary
Concentrations of 3.8S histidine-rich glycoprotein were determined in the sera of healthy adults, pregnant women, neonates, and of persons afflicted with a variety of diseases. Quantitative differences were found between the HRG concentration in healthy adult serum (12.5 ± 3.2 mg/100 ml, mean ± SD) and in neonatal (2.3 ± 1.5 mg/100 ml) and cord serum (3.4 ± 1.1 mg/100 ml). In women the HRG concentration declines steadily during the last two trimesters of pregnancy reaching at parturition a value about 50% of that in adult serum (5.6 ± 2.3 mg/100 ml, P < 0.005), but returns to normal levels within 5-15 days postpartum. No difference was observed between the HRG levels of males and females in either adults or neonates.
In general, mean HRG levels in the sera of patients with a variety of disease states were near normal but were more widely scattered than in healthy adults. However, the mean HRG concentrations in the sera of patients with a variety of heart ailments (16.6 ± 6.2 mg/100 ml, P < 0.01) and erythropoietic protoporphyria (14.5 ± 5.9 mg/100 ml, P < 0.05) were elevated compared to healthy adult levels. The levels of HRG in the sera of patients with neuromuscular diseases (8.0 ± 1.8 mg/100 ml), lead poisoning (10.8 ± 4.2 mg/100 ml), and porphyria cutanea tarda (11.5 ± 4.1 mg/100 ml) were lower than normal levels (P < 0.05).
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