Studies on Serum Haptoglobin

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Abstract
THE alpha2-globulin fraction of human serum proteins, which Polonovski and Jayle1 named haptoglobin, has been demonstrated to have the ability to bind extracorpuscular hemoglobin in vivo with the formation of a molecule that is too large (molecular weight, 310,000)2 to pass readily through the renal glomeruli. Thereby haptoglobin plays a major part in determining the fate of plasma hemoglobin reaching the kidney, in that the plasma hemoglobin level must exceed the serum haptoglobin concentration before hemoglobin will be excreted.3 , 4 Although the hemoglobin-binding ability of haptoglobin has been established, the functional significance of this ability has not been defined. . . .