Electrophoresis of serum protein in asthma: Preliminary report

We studied forty-four samples of sera from asthmatic patients and thirty-eight from nonasthmatic persons, employing filter paper electrophoresis by the method of Grassmann and Hannig. An abnormal distribution of the protein in fractions was found. An extra component migrating between the beta and gamma globulins was also found in about 50 per cent of the asthma cases, which were divided into three groups—allergic, infections, and mixed as based upon laboratory and clinical data. The statistical analysis of the average values for each protein fraction revealed decrease in albumin, increase in alpha 2 and gamma globulins, and no significant difference between the average values of beta and alpha 1 globulins.