Sialic Acids. II. Relationship between the content of N-ACETYLNEURAMINIC acid, HEXOSE and total proteins in human serum

Abstract

A study is made ou the content of N-acetylneuraminic acid (NANA), protein-bound hexose and total serum protein in a series of 36 individuáis (Table I) of various ages with different diseases (rickets, etc.).
The quantitative determination of N-acetylneuraminic acid is made using the cupric-resorcinol method of Svennerholm, modified bj’’ Miettinen, as described in another of the authors’ papers.

The hexose quantitative determination is made bj1, the sulphuric-orcinol method, as reported by Winzler, and total serum proteins are determined by Phillips-Van Slyke’s technique, checked by biuret’s method.

It can be deduced that there exists a remarkable parallelism between N-acetylneuraminic acid and protein-bound hexose contents.

On the other hand, there does not seem to have any relation between the contents of N-acetylneuraminic acid and total serum proteins.