A STUDY ON POSTSPLENECTOMY CHANGES OF SERUM TUFTSIN LEVEL USING A RADIOIMMUNOASSAY PROTOCOL

In this article, postsplenectomy changes of serum tuftsin level were s tudied on both human subjects and rabbits by using a self-established radioimmunoassay protocol. Antituftsin antibodies were raised in rabbi ts and roosters. I-125-tuftsin was prepared through an Iodogen method. The characteristics of the RIA were satisfactory with a detecting ran ge of 0.5-100 ug/ml and the lowest detection limit of 400 ng/ml. Serum tuftsin levels of splenectomized subjects were measured and compared with control groups. The serum tuftsin level from 30 postsplenectomy h uman beings was 406 +/- 179 ng/ml <((x)over bar +/- s)> while that fro m a control group of 40 healthy blood donors was 557 +/- 256 ng/ml; th e serum tuftsin level of 10 postsplenectomy rabbits was found to be 20 6 +/- 75 ng/ml while that of a control group of 10 normal rabbits was 318 +/- 96 ng/ml. The results showed that serum tuftsin level decrease d markedly after splenectomy.