Transferrin microheterogeneity as a probe in normal and disease states.
Isoelectric focusing of iron saturated serum has been established as a convenient method for showing transferrin glycan microheterogeneity. In a clinical setting, the method is used in the detection of cerebrospinal fluid leakage, the screening for surreptitious alcohol abuse and in the diagnosis of the carbohydrate deficient glycoprotein syndrome. In normal physiological states it can also be used as a tool to probe for changes in N-glycosylation.
D000437:Alcoholism / Q000097:blood*; D002236:Carbohydrate Conformation; D002240:Carbohydrate Sequence; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002555:Cerebrospinal Fluid / Q000378:metabolism*; D018981:Congenital Disorders of Glycosylation / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D006031:Glycosylation; D006801:Humans; D015335:Molecular Probes; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011247:Pregnancy; D012016:Reference Values; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014168:Transferrin / Q000737:chemistry*
D015335:Molecular Probes; D014168:Transferrin