Serum albumin
|
WikiDoc Resources for Serum albumin |
|
Articles |
|---|
|
Most recent articles on Serum albumin Most cited articles on Serum albumin |
|
Media |
|
Powerpoint slides on Serum albumin |
|
Evidence Based Medicine |
|
Clinical Trials |
|
Ongoing Trials on Serum albumin at Clinical Trials.gov Trial results on Serum albumin Clinical Trials on Serum albumin at Google
|
|
Guidelines / Policies / Govt |
|
US National Guidelines Clearinghouse on Serum albumin NICE Guidance on Serum albumin
|
|
Books |
|
News |
|
Commentary |
|
Definitions |
|
Patient Resources / Community |
|
Patient resources on Serum albumin Discussion groups on Serum albumin Patient Handouts on Serum albumin Directions to Hospitals Treating Serum albumin Risk calculators and risk factors for Serum albumin
|
|
Healthcare Provider Resources |
|
Causes & Risk Factors for Serum albumin |
|
Continuing Medical Education (CME) |
|
International |
|
|
|
Business |
|
Experimental / Informatics |
| Cardiology Network |
 Discuss Serum albumin further in the WikiDoc Cardiology Network |
| Adult Congenital |
|---|
| Biomarkers |
| Cardiac Rehabilitation |
| Congestive Heart Failure |
| CT Angiography |
| Echocardiography |
| Electrophysiology |
| Cardiology General |
| Genetics |
| Health Economics |
| Hypertension |
| Interventional Cardiology |
| MRI |
| Nuclear Cardiology |
| Peripheral Arterial Disease |
| Prevention |
| Public Policy |
| Pulmonary Embolism |
| Stable Angina |
| Valvular Heart Disease |
| Vascular Medicine |
Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]
Please Take Over This Page and Apply to be Editor-In-Chief for this topic: There can be one or more than one Editor-In-Chief. You may also apply to be an Associate Editor-In-Chief of one of the subtopics below. Please mail us [2] to indicate your interest in serving either as an Editor-In-Chief of the entire topic or as an Associate Editor-In-Chief for a subtopic. Please be sure to attach your CV and or biographical sketch.
Overview
Serum albumin, often referred to simply as albumin, is the most abundant plasma protein in humans and other mammals. Albumin is essential for maintaining the osmotic pressure needed for proper distribution of body fluids between intravascular compartments and body tissues. It also acts as a plasma carrier by non-specifically binding several hydrophobic steroid hormones and as a transport protein for hemin and fatty acids.
Types
- The human version is human serum albumin.
- Bovine serum albumin, or BSA, is commonly used in immunodiagnostic procedures, clinical chemistry reagents, cell culture media, protein chemistry research and molecular biology laboratories.
General characteristics
Albumin is negatively charged. The glomerular basement membrane is also negatively charged; some studies suggest that this prevents the filtration of albumin in the urine. According to this theory, that charge plays a major role in the selective exclusion of albumin from the glomerular filtrate, a defect in this property results in nephrotic syndrome. Thus, there is more albumin loss in the urine. Nephrotic syndrome patients are sometimes given albumin to replace the lost albumin.
Because smaller animals (for example rats) function at a lower blood pressure, they need less oncotic pressure to balance this, and thus need less albumin to maintain proper fluid distribution.
Serum albumin contains eleven distinct binding domains for hydrophobic compounds. One hemin and six long-chain fatty acids can bind to serum albumin at the same time [1].