Occurrence of globulin-like migrating blood albumins, or GLIMBAL, in pathological rat and human sera

The presence in the serum of albumins having a globulin-like electrophoretic mobility (globulin-like migrating blood albumins or GLIMBAL) has been determined by immunoelectrophoresis in rat and human sera. GLIMBAL have been detected occasionally (14%) in rat sera during the acute inflammation induced by yeast injection. GLIMBAL were, on the other hand, present in pathological human sera from patients with rheumatoid arthritis (50%), systemic lupus erythematosus (69%), and liver disease (17%). These data indicate that the occurrence of GLIMBAL in human sera is more frequent than previously described. Many pathological conditions are accompanied by electrophoretic changes of serum, consisting of an increase of glubulins and eventually albumin decrease; our data indicate that these changes may in some conditions reflect a process of albumin transformation rather than an increase in globulin synthesis.