Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The Plasma Proteins and Their Fractionation

1947; Academic Press; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/s0065-3233(08)60084-4

1557-8941

John T. Edsall,

Blood properties and coagulation

This chapter focuses on the distinctive properties and functions of the plasma—especially of the plasma proteins. The functions of blood plasma itself are so important that this blood plasma cannot be exhausted by any brief list. Because blood is rapidly circulating, it is essential that the volume of the blood and its physical characteristics—such as viscosity—should be suitable for maintaining that circulation. The interchange of hormones between one tissue and another is of necessity, and the plasma is a great highway of travel for these materials from the tissue where they are produced to those other tissues where their action is primarily exerted. The relation of antibodies to blood plasma is again somewhat similar to that of the hormones. These antibodies are produced in the tissues but may exert their protective action either in another tissue or in the plasma itself, when these antibodies are brought into contact with the antigens for which these are specific.