Function
- Maintains oncotic pressure
- Transports thyroid hormones
- Transports other hormones, in particular, ones that are fat-soluble
- Transports fatty acids ("free" fatty acids) to the liver and to myocytes for utilization of energy
- Transports unconjugated bilirubin
- Transports many drugs; serum albumin levels can affect the half-life of drugs
- Competitively binds calcium ions (Ca2+)
- Buffers pH
- Serum albumin, as a negative acute-phase protein, is down-regulated in inflammatory states. As such, it is not a valid marker of nutritional status; rather, it is a marker in inflammatory states
- Prevents photodegradation of folic acid
Read more about this topic: Human Serum Albumin
Famous quotes containing the word function:
“The function of literature, through all its mutations, has been to make us aware of the particularity of selves, and the high authority of the self in its quarrel with its society and its culture. Literature is in that sense subversive.”
—Lionel Trilling (1905–1975)
“Morality and its victim, the mother—what a terrible picture! Is there indeed anything more terrible, more criminal, than our glorified sacred function of motherhood?”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“My function in life is not to be a politician in Parliament: it is to get something done.”
—Bernadette Devlin (b. 1947)