Human α1-microglobulin: Its measurement and clinical significance

✍ Scribed by Yoshihisa Itoh; Tadashi Kawai

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1990
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 782 KB
• Volume: 4
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0887-8013
• DOI: 10.1002/jcla.1860040511

✦ Synopsis

al-Microglobulin (a,-M), also called protein HC, is a low-molecular-weight (LMW) glycoprotein (about 30 kDa) with unique physicochemical properties. Using purified urinary al-M as a standard and specific antibody against al-M, an assay system for al-M was developed, and the clinical significance of this protein was investigated by measuring total levels of al-M under physiological and pathological conditions. al-M is distributed in various body fluids: in serum, it consists mainly of free LMW a,-M and monomeric IgA-al-M complex. The total al-M level in serum and urine usually reflects LMW al-M variation sensitively, and its determination is quite useful as an indicator of renal glomerulotubular dysfunction and hepatic dysfunction. Serum levels can vary, depending on IgA-a,-M complex level, in parallel with the IgA concentration. The heterogeneity of a,-M purified from different sources of urine by different procedures and underestimation of IgA-al-M complex by solid-phase antibody assays can be important causes for the discrepancy of serum levels between assays.