THE TAGGING OF RED CELLS AND PLASMA PROTEINS WITH RADIOACTIVE CHROMIUM 1

Abstract

In preparation for the present study, arc spectrography 3 was used to demonstrate the presence of trace amounts of chromium in human tissues, including the blood. Tissue analyses were performed on samples of normal human blood by means of a colorimetric method (2) with the finding of mean values of 20 y % for packed red cells and 14 y % for plasma. The present report is concerned with a new biological tracer, radioactive chromium (Cr51), which is bound by the red cells and plasma proteins. Both anionic hexavalent (Na2Cr51O4) and cationic trivalent (Cr51Cl3) states of the element have been studied.