Distribution of zinc amongst human serum proteins determined by affinity chromatography and atomic-absorption spectrophotometry

Abstract

Affinity chromatography for albumin has been coupled with electrothermal atomic-absorption spectrophotometry to determine the distribution of zinc between albumin and globulin ligands in normal human serum. The procedure is both simple and rapid and requires only 400 µl of serum for duplicate analyses. There is no alteration in the distribution of zinc between albumin and the globulin during the separation process and the total recovery of zinc from the column is quantitative, 98.6%. Albumin-bound zinc and globulin-bound zinc are determined with relative standard deviations of 4.5 and 5.9%, respectively. The distribution of zinc obtained is in very good agreement with that found using more complex techniques.