The partition of solutes between buffer solutions and solutions containing hyaluronic acid

Abstract

The partition of a number of diffusible solutes, including inulin and proteins, between buffer solutions and solutions of hyaluronic acid has been examined. All substances examined are partitioned in favor of buffer, increasingly with increase of effective molecular volume The importance of these findings to the distribution of natural and artificial macromolecular substances between fluids and tissue spaces, in vivo and in vitro, and to the use of such substances for measuring extracellular volumes, is pointed out. A simple steric theory is put forward to explain this effect.