Abstract
CLEAR-CUT evidence that the fœtus synthesizes its own plasma proteins is scant. It has been demonstrated by in vitro experiments that the liver of a fœtus of three months gestation can incorporate glycine labelled with carbon-14 into proteins resembling albumin, α1-globulin, α2-globulin, and β-globulin of human plasma1. These investigations also showed that metal-binding β-globulin (presumably transferrin) was capable of being synthesized by fœtal liver. Other workers have established that the fœtus synthesizes haptoglobin by finding some new-born children with types of haptoglobin that were absent in their mothers2,3.
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RAUSEN, A., GERALD, P. & DIAMOND, L. Genetical Evidence for Synthesis of Transferrin in the Fœtus. Nature 192, 182 (1961). https://doi.org/10.1038/192182a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/192182a0
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