Albumin is a soluble,monomeric protein which comprises about one-half of the blood serum protein.Albumin functions primarily as a carrier protein for steroids,fatty acids,and thyroid hormones and plays a role in stabilizing extracellular fluid volume.Albumin is a globular unglycosylated serum protein of molecular weight 65,000.Albumin is synthesized in the liver as preproalbumin which has an N-terminal peptide that is removed before the nascent protein is released from the rough endoplasmic reticulum.The product,proalbumin,is in turn cleaved in the Golgi vesicles to produce the secreted albumin.[provided by RefSeq,Jul 2008]