Improved specificity of serum albumin determination and estimation of "acute phase reactants" by use of the bromcresol green reaction.

The reaction of serum samples with bromcresol green proceeds in two steps. Albumin is responsible for the faster (less than 1 min) reaction; the slower (30-min) reaction is a measure of "acute phase reactant(s)" in serum. Serum is simply mixed with bromcresol green reagent and the absorbance is measured twice, immediately and at 60 min. Albumin concentrations, determined from the absorbance at 0 min, correlate well with those determined by Laurell "rocket" immunoelectrophoresis; r = 0.95 with no certain deviation from unity for the slope and with a negligible difference at zero concentration. The slow reaction was expressed as deltaA% = 100 (deltaAs/deltaAv) where deltaAs and delta Av are the changes in absorbance between 60 and 0 min for the sample and a commercial control serum, respectively. The value for deltaA% correlates well with the percentage of alpha2-fraction as determined by electrophoresis on cellulose acetate, as well as with orosomucoid and ceruloplasmin, all of which are acute phase reactant(s). Whether these proteins or other acute phase reactant(s) actually cause the slow reaction has not yet been established.