| Abstract: | The structure of human serum was studied by X-ray diffraction method and the patterns were referred to those of pure water. For two groups of serum samples, the patterns differed significantly from those of pure water. One of the distinguished groups came from people suffering from neoplasmic diseases - the samples were studied directly after centrifugation. The other distinguished group included the samples studied after precipitation of proteins. The results obtained confirmed the earlier supposition that the dominant interactions in water low-concentration solutions of proteins in the serum of healthy people are those between water molecules and non-polar chains of side amino acids. For the samples of serum with precipitated proteins or obtained from hemolysed blood, the diffraction pattern shows a sharp maximum, testifying to the formation of a significant number of water-ion complexes disturbing the structure of pure water. The results have confirmed a possibility of using serum diffraction patterns as a diagnostic tool. |
