The polysaccharide content of serum fractions in carcinoma, arthritis, and infections.

A rise of the polysaccharide associated with serum proteins has been noted in malignancy and in several other conditions (7). Seibert, Pfaff, and Seibert (4) determined the carbohydrate content of normal plasma protein fractions isolated by the low temperature ethanolic procedure of Cohn et al. (1) and foundconsiderablecarbohydrateto be associated with all globulin fractions. It would be of interest to determine which of the serum protein fractions are responsible for the elevation of serum polysaceharide in malignancy and in other condi tions. A study of the application to this problem of the fractionation of serum proteins by sodium sulfate and ammonium sulfate has been made and will be published elsewhere; elevation of polysac-. charide associated with the albumin fraction in normal pregnancy has been reported (8). It is the purpose of this paper to describe similar studies on patients with carcinoma, arthritis, and infections.