The measurement of circulating prealbumin has been shown to be clinically useful in the assessment of nutritional status, both as an initial screen and in the monitoring of nutritional recovery. We describe a fully automated, noncompetitive, homogeneous, light-scattering immunoassay that has been developed for this analyte on a Dimension (Dade) analyzer. A sheep anti-prealbumin IgG fraction was...

OBJECTIVE Measurement of inflammatory mediators is an important tool to assess inflammation. We have, therefore, conducted a survey within the Prospective Investigation of the Vasculature in Uppsala Seniors (PIVUS) study to evaluate the inter-relationship between soluble CTLA-4 (sCTLA-4) and other inflammatory markers. MATERIALS AND METHODS This is a population-based study, designed to quanti...

BACKGROUND The aim of the study was to investigate urine matrix metalloproteinase (MMP-2 and -9) activity, alkaline phosphatase/creatinine (U-AP/Cr) and gamma-glutamyl-transpeptidase/creatinine (U-GGT/Cr) ratios, glucose concentration, and urine protein/creatinine (U-Prot/Cr) ratio and to compare data with plasma MMP-2 and -9 activity, cystatin-C and creatinine concentrations in colic horses an...

This study aims to evidence the formation of stable polyelectrolyte complex particles as colloidal dispersions using some weak polyelectrolytes: chitosan and poly(allylamine hydrochloride) as polycations and poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) and poly(2-acrylamido-2-methylpropanesulfonic acid – co – acrylic acid) (PAMPSAA) as polyanions. Polyelectrolyte complex particles as colloidal dispersion were prep...

Introduction: C-reactive proteins (CRP) are a very good marker of inflammation and when the inflammation subsided, CRP quickly falls followed by erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) thus it is a more sensitive and accurate reflection of the acute phase response than the ESR. As both alcoholic and infective hepatitis leads to inflammation in hepatocytes, CRP levels are increased in both conditio...

Latex immunoassay, a sensitive method based on latex particle agglutination, is used here for the determination of retinol-binding protein in human biological fluids. The assay, similar to that described previously for beta 2-microglobulin (Clin. Chem. 27:832-837, 1981), consists of incubating the sample at 37 degrees C for 30 min with antibody-coated particles, then quantifying the resulting a...

Turbidity and light scattering measurements, along with phase contrast microscopy, were used to follow the processes leading to coacervation when aqueous solutions of bovine serum albumin (BSA) and poly-(dimethyldiallylammonium chloride) (PDADMAC) were brought from pH = 4 to 10. The state of macromolecular assembly of complexes formed between BSA and PDADMAC prior to and during the pH-induced c...

The interaction between a small dermatan sulphate proteoglycan isolated from human uterine cervix and collagen type I from human and rat skin was investigated by collagen-fibrillogenesis experiments. Collagen fibrillogenesis was initiated by elevation of temperature and pH after addition of proteoglycan, chondroitinase-digested proteoglycan or isolated side chains, and monitored by turbidimetry...

The kinetics of in vitro fibril assembly of Type I collagen preparations that contain different amounts of covalently cross-linked oligomers was studied with turbidimetry. Fibril formation showed a lag phase with no solution turbidity and a growth phase with a sigmoidal increase in the solution turbidity. The length of the lag phase was inversely related to both the total collagen concentration...

BACKGROUND Acute traumatic coagulopathy (ATC) has been linked to an increase in activated protein C (aPC) from 40 pM in healthy individuals to 175 pM. aPC exerts its activity primarily through cleavage of active coagulation factor Va (fVa). Platelets reportedly possess fVa which is more resistant to aPC cleavage than plasma fVa; this work examines the hypothesis that normal platelets are suffic...