“…The iron contents of the ribosomal ferritin as well as of the cytoplasmatically localized ferritin [5,12] from cirrhotic and cancerous human livers are decreased significantly as compared with normal livers. In previous experiments employing polyacryla mide gel electrophoresis, molecular weight determination and amino acid analysis, the ribosomal apoferritins from pathological livers were shown to differ structurally from normal apoferritin [2], Changes in protein structure may be discussed to decrease the capacity of apoferritin for iron uptake. Therefore, the ribosomal apoferritin fractions from normal, cirrhotic and cancerous human livers were submitted to optical rotatory dispersion (ORD) [1,3,6] measurements, in order to obtain informations regarding their con formations, especially their a-helical contents.…”