A comparative study of commercial human and bovine albumin preparations

A number of commercial human and bovine albumin preparations were compared using seven assay procedures, to assess their suitability as reference materials for albumin and total protein assays. The results indicate that before a particular commercial albumin preparation can be used for standardisation purposes, its suitability should be checked in several assay systems which measure a different functional aspect of the protein molecule. The measurement of extinction coefficient in the range 278-280 nm does not appear to be a valid measure of protein content if the albumin preparation is to be used for standardisation of immunochemical or dye-binding assays.