A preliminary report on a study of the protective ferments of the blood by the Abderhalden method, after the transplantation of organs / by Charles Goodman, M.D.

  • Goodman, Charles
Date:
[1915?]
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: A preliminary report on a study of the protective ferments of the blood by the Abderhalden method, after the transplantation of organs / by Charles Goodman, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    CHARLES GOODMAN negative pressure in the jugular. Such positive drainage does not occur if the anastomosis is lateral. The Abderhalden method was used to seek the protective ferments in the blood which are brought into activity by the presence of a foreign transplant and which may induce its final autolysis. The thyroid, on account of its accessibility and of the ease with which slight degenerative changes may be recognized, was chosen as the organ to transplant in this study. Furthermore, its venous drain¬ age may be made adequate to prevent hypertension, thus minimizing parenchymatous changes due to physical injury (Fig. 4). Thyroid transplantation had been undertaken by Borst and Ender- lein, Stich and others. Stich in his series of experiments had two successful autotransplants. Of my autotransplants, in two consec¬ utive instances, the thyroid having been removed from the body and reimplanted in the same animal, the results were satisfactory, the thyroid tissue retaining its normal appearance and, apparently, its activity (Figs. 5, 6 and 7). In a series of homotransplants, although several of the animals lived for some time, the transplant invariably underwent degenerative changes with absorption (Figs. 8 and 9). From a series of fourteen specimens so far obtained at the Laboratory of Experimental Surgery at the New York University, work conducted through the courtesy of Dr. George D. Stewart, it has been possible in eight instances to demon¬ strate the presence in the blood of a protective ferment capable of digesting suprarenal tissue. The significance of the demonstration is problematical but it may be an index of the susceptibility of the supra¬ renal body to insults occurring anywhere in the hsemopoietic system. However this may be, the Abderhalden reaction was positive in eight specimens from dogs operated upon as above described. Tests with different substrata are being made to determine whether organs other than the suprarenal are sensitive to a thyroid transplant. It is hoped that a way may be found, perhaps with the aid of the X-ray in controlling lymphatic absorption, to modify the biochemical differences which at present cause autolysis and prevent the use of transplants in applied surgery.
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