Observations on trace proteins in plasma of febrile patients by cationic disc electrophoresis in acrylamide gel at pH 3.8.

Cationic disc electrophoresis at pH 3.5 in 6 M urea-containing acrylamide gels permits analysis of plasma and other body fluids for the presence of trace proteins with pI greater than or equal 5 and M.W. less than 60,000. These charge and size characteristics would include rabbit and human granulocytic pyrogen, human monocytic pyrogen and, by inference, other similar candidate pyrogenic proteins. Semiquantitation of the trace protein content can be achieved by densitometric scanning of gels stained with Amido schwarz. Duplicate analyses were performed on plasma samples from 133 individuals: normal, 15; afebrile advanced cancer, 18; afebrile Hodgkin's disease, 30; febrile Hodgkin's disease, 33; other febrile lymphoma, 13; febrile advanced cancer without infection, 12; and pyogenic fever, 12. Plasma from most of the febrile patients, particularly from febrile Hodgkin's disease patients, contained trace proteins not detectable in the afebrile individuals studied. In patients with Hodgkin's disease the quantity of trace proteins present in plasma correlated well with overall severity of Hodgkin's pyrexia, but not with spontaneous hr to hr fluctuations in the fever. Marked reduction in plasma levels of the trace proteins occurred with response to antitumor therapy. Elevated plasma levels of these proteins can be induced by intratumoral inoculation of Bacillus Calmette-Guérin. They appear concomitant with the febrile response.