Hamburger's law

Ham·bur·ger's law

(hăm′bûr′gərz)

n.

The principle that, under acidic conditions, albumins and phosphates in the blood pass from red blood cells to serum and chlorides pass from serum to red blood cells while, under basic conditions, the reverse occurs.

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Hamburger’s law

The principle that chloride concentrates in erythrocytes while phosphate and albumin diffuse from erythrocytes in low pH, and, with a high serum pH, the opposite occurs. The law is no longer eponymously dignified.

While this obsolete law is generally valid, intact cell membranes have a low permeability for high molecular weight molecules (albumin = 69 kD), nor does it address the concept of gated membrane channels. The law is attributed to Hartog Jakob Hamburger (1859–1925), a Dutch physiologist.

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