Polyvinylpyrrolidone: The Electromigration Characteristics of the Blood Plasma Expander

¹ Department of Biochemistry, the Stritch School of Medicine and the Graduate School, Loyola University Chicago, III

Before the metabolic role of the blood plasma expander, polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) can be studied by the technic of ionography, some fundamental ionographic characteristics of the polymer, per se, must be determined. This study is concerned with the influence of such variable factors as time, potential gradient, temperature, the pH of the buffer and its ionic strength on the mobility of the migrant when under the influence of an electrical field, and an attempt has been made to correlate them. This work, then, may serve as a basis for later investigations to be made on the combining power of PVP for certain physiologic products with which it comes into intimate contact when used as a plasma expander.