Abstract
The lysis of erythrocytes interferes with the radioimmunoassay of insulin, causing a destruction of the hormone. The disappearance of insulin in human blood in vitro is measured, as a function of time and the degree of haemolysis, by means of a radioimmunoassay. The insulin degradation after incubation with known amounts of haemolysates for different periods of time is verified using a trichloroacetic acid precipitation technique to obtain an estimate of the remaining intact hormone.