Pooled
human plasma, prepared under sterile conditions by the closed vacuum technique and containing 5 per cent. of glucose and o.oI per cent. of merthiolate, was examined by electrophoresis in the Tiselius apparatus after storage in the liquid state at room temperature for 3 years. There was a large increase of a-globulin at the expense of all the ~,-globulin, all the fibrinogen, and part of the 3-globulin. The mobilities were 2o to 25 per cent. greater than in fresh plasma, and the boundaries were broadened.
Heat treatment of fresh human plasma also caused an increase of the a-globulin, but at the expense of different plasma constituents, and without increase of the mobilities or broadening of the boundaries.
The addition of 5 per cent. of glucose to fresh human plasma produced an increase of the a~-globulin at the expense of the 3-globulin, with partial fusion of the a2-and 3-globulin boundaries in the negative arm; it also caused the disappearance of the at-globulin as a separate boundary. The former change persisted after removal of the glucose by dialysis; the latter did not. The electrophoretic patterns of plasmas stored at room temperature for periods of less than a month, with and without the addition of glucose, indicated protective action by the added glucose.