subject: Importance Of Albumin Blood Test [print this page] Albumin is a protein that is created in the liver of human beings and has a wide variety of uses. Mostly, albumin's role in the body is to maintain osmotic pressures and to also transport hydrophobic substances. The human blood is a mainly water-based medium but there are many substances in the human body that are lipid-based and cannot mix in blood. These are vitamins like A, E, and K as well as steroid hormones that are synthesized from cholesterol like testosterone, aldesterone, adrenaline, among others. Therefore, a carrier has to then be able to soak up these substances and carry them to different parts of the body; this is what albumin does. It soaks up fatty and hydrophobic substances and carries them to different parts of the body where it is required.
Albumin is also required to regulate the osmotic pressure of the body. Our blood supply culminates from the various veins and arteries in capillaries. At the terminal end of a capillary, the structure of the blood vessel is such that it allows some constituents of it like water, metabolites, and other substances that are smaller than proteins to leak out. Albumin has the ability to act like a salt in this regard and will bind to water. This is important because if there was no albumin, the tissues would swell up with water; therefore, the importance of serum albumin.
Tests for serum albumin are used to check for various diseases. Since it is created in the liver, album tests are usually indicative of liver failure. Other conditions like nephritic syndrome and Menetrier's enteropathy cause albumin to be excreted from the kidneys and intestines. Albumin is also a negative acute phase protein and therefore low levels of albumin can also be an indication of inflammation. Albumin secretion can also go out of control at times. This state is usually an indication of chronic dehydration. It is also a sign of vitamin A deficiency. Albumin is also a tested protein in the urine in diabetes. Normally, the kidneys will not excrete albumin because it is ionically a negatively charged element and therefore is excluded in the glomulerus. However, diabetes plays havoc with this system and will cause proteins to pass into the urine and this can therefore be a very good indication of diabetes as well and how much the disease has affected the kidneys. These are the major test uses for human albumin.
