Albumin (ALB)

Albumin is a soluble, monomeric protein which comprises about one-half of the blood serum protein. Albumin functions primarily as a carrier protein for steroids, fatty acids, and thyroid hormones and plays a role in stabilizing extracellular fluid volume. Mutations in the ALB gene on chromosome 4 result in various anomalous proteins.Albumin is a globular unglycosylated serum protein of molecular weight 65,000. The albumin variant first described by Fraser et al. in a Welsh family was characterized as a dimer by Jamieson and Ganguly. The amino acid sequence has been determined in fragments of serum albumin of man. By 1980, at least 2 dozen electrophoretic variants of serum albumin had been reported but only 2 of them had been characterized with respect to their primary structure: albumin A and albumin B.