Human serum general considerations

HBM I The concentration of an environmental toxin in a human biological material (usually blood, serum, plasma or urine), below which there is - according to the knowledge and judgement of the commission and with regard to the environmental toxin under consideration-no risk of adverse health effects in individuals of the general population. 

Beyond individual considerations of the involvanent of certain hepatic transporters, like BSEP, and mitochondrial dysfunction on DILI, it is important to consider why these two risk factors can contribute so much to the manifestation of severe DILI in humans (Aleo et al., 2014). Bile acids, in general, appear to represent a more reliable marker of hepatic dysfunction regarding excretory abnormalities than serum bilirubin. Elevations in total bile acids can precede evidence of liver damage (as diagnosed by serum transaminase and bilirubin elevations) caused by hepatotoxic drugs by upward of 1 week (Fattinger et al., 2001). In order to explain this association, it is important to understand the intricate interactions between mitochondrial bioenergetics and transporter function within the liver. 

Among the serum albumins of different species, there are marked differences in carbohydrate content. The crude albumin fraction from horse serum, as prepared by salting-out, contains considerable amounts of carbohydrate, while that from human or bovine serum contains comparatively little. The fractionation of the serum albumins from horse serum has been studied in several laboratories (Sorensen and Haugaard, 200 Hewitt, 98,99,100 Kekwick, 113 McMeekin, 137,138). All of these workers obtained a crystalline carbohydrate-free albumin fraction from horse serum, but the yields were generally small and large quantities of carbohydrate-containing material were left in the filtrates. From such filtrates Hewitt (100) isolated a globulin fraction with a carbohydrate... 

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