Studies on sodium-borohydride-reducible hexose in glucosyl-albumin

Glucosylated albumin of human serum isolated by dye-ligand chromatography on blue Sepharose, was not found to be completely reducible by sodium borohydride. The percentage reducible hexose as judged by phenol-sulphuric acid reaction was in the range of 49.7 +/- 12.8 in control subjects (n = 24) and 53.8 +/- 14.2 in diabetics (n = 50). Increase in the level of total hexose bound to albumin and reducible hexose were equally significant in diabetes (P less than 0.001). Sodium chloride gradient elution during chromatography on blue Sepharose showed that glucosylated albumin had lesser affinity than the native protein to the matrix. It is proposed that an addition product between hexose and albumin is formed during nonenzymatic reaction and this adduct is fairly stable and is not reducible by sodium borohydride.