Chemical pathology : being a discussion of general pathology from the standpoint of the chemical processes involved / by H. Gideon Wells.

  • Wells, H. Gideon (Harry Gideon), 1875-1943.
Date:
1918
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Chemical pathology : being a discussion of general pathology from the standpoint of the chemical processes involved / by H. Gideon Wells. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Occurrence of Catalase under Normal and Pathological Condi- tions.77b—Battelli and Stern found that the catalytic power of the tis- sues endures many hours after death. Its abundance is different for different organs of the same animal, but remarkably constant for the same organ in the same species. In general the order in decreasing strength is: liver, kidney, blood, spleen, gastro-intestinal mucosa, sal- ivary glands, lung, pancreas, testicle, heart, muscle, brain; but this order varies in different species. Catalase is abundant even in the early embryo (Mendel and Leavenworth) and in sea urchin eggs it increases rapidly after they are fertilized (Lyon).78 Leucocytes con- tain little, most of that in the blood being in the stroma of the red blood-corpuscles. The body fluids contain little or none. Injected intravenously, catalase (of the liver) is destroyed rapidly, and does not appear in the urine; it does not cause any toxic effects, nor does it increase resistance to poisoning by venoms. The tissues also con- tain anti-catalases, and still further a substance which protects the catalase from the anti-catalase; this protective substance is called the philocatalase by Battelli and Stern. The gas evolved by the action of pus on H202 was found by Mar- shall 79 to be pure oxygen, each c.c. of a certain sample of pus exam- ined liberating 133.9 c.c. of gas. The active constituent of pus, he states, is contained in the serum and not in the corpuscles. Substances decomposing H202 have been found also in bacterial cultures, first by Gottstein, and later in the cell juices expressed from tubercle bacilli by Hahn. Loewenstein 80 found an enzyme agreeing with catalase in filtered bouillon cultures of diphtheria bacilli and staphylococci, but not from tetanus, typhoid, and colon bacilli or cholera vibrios; the catalase is quite distinct from the toxin. He also found that the ad- dition of H202 to a diphtheria toxin-antitoxin mixture destroyed the toxin, leaving the antitoxin free. A similar destruction of tetanus toxin by peroxides, first demonstrated by Sieber, can occur without the catalase. Winternitz 81 and his associates have made extensive studies of the catalase activity of the blood and tissues in disease. They found that all tissues have reduced catalase activity in chronic nephritis, in pro- portion to the severity of the condition, and experimental nephritis in animals has the same effect; the blood shows great reduction in catalase in uremia, and a less reduction with less severe nephritic manifestations. Eclampsia shows little or much reduction of catalase in the blood in proportion to the amount of renal involvement; normal pregnancy and labor have no effect. Anemia is associated with irregu- 77b Concerning the catalase of lower animals see Zieger, Biochem. Zeit., 1915 (69), 39. 78 Amer. Jour. Physiol., 1909 (25), 199. 79 Univ. of Penn. Med. Bull., 1902 (15), 366. so Wien. klin. Woch., 1903 (16), 1393. si Review in Arch. Int. Med., 1911 (7), 624.