Green Albumex
Are green-tinged albumin solutions safe to use?
Albumin solutions that are straw-coloured or green are normal and safe to use.
CSL Bioplasma uses chromatographic fractionation techniques to manufacture albumin products with >99% purity (1).
CSL Bioplasma’s albumin products, consistent with other commercially available products, may vary in colour from a pale straw to amber to a greenish tint (2,3) depending on the proportions of bilirubin and its degradation products - lumirubin and biliverdin.
In the human body, erythrocytes are destroyed in the reticulo-endothelial system (spleen, lymph nodes, bone marrow) after the termination of their normal life span. This process releases haemoglobin, which is processed to bilirubin which then binds to albumin and is transported to the liver.
The majority of this bilirubin is then conjugated and excreted via the bile duct in the liver. Bilirubin is sensitive to light and degrades predominantly to lumirubin, which has a yellow pigment and also results in the generation of small amounts of biliverdin which is green (4).
References1. Che Y, Wilson F, Bertolini J, Schiff P, Maher D.W. Impact of Manufacturing Improvements on Clinical Safety of Albumin: Australian Pharmacovigilance Data for 1988-2005. Critical Care & Resuscitation 8[4], 334-338. 2007.
2.
Product Information (various), commercially prepared Albumin.
3. British Pharmacopeia.
4. Onishi S, Itoh S, Isobe K, Ochi M, Kunikata T, Imai T. Effect of the Binding of Bilirubin to either the First Class or the Second Class of Binding Sites of the Human Serum Albumin Molecule on its Photochemical Reaction. Biochem J. 1989 Feb 1;257(3):711-4.