Abstract
Bacterial diseases, virus diseases, trauma and cancer generally produce elevation of plasma fibrinogen level. The basic cause of the phenomenon has not been extensively investigated but most observers appear to agree with Foster and Whipple(1) that dead tissue or nonspecific (aseptic) inflammation is required to produce the elevation(2). The present paper is concerned with our observation that subcutaneous injection of cancer tissue homogenates or suspensions will cause elevation of plasma fibrinogen, whereas injection of similar preparations of a number of other tissues will not do so.
Methods. Young adult Carworth-Wistar female rats from Carworth Farms were used, and maintained on Purina dog chow and water ad lib. in individual cages. The Murphy-Sturm lymphosarcoma was used. It was carried by subcutaneous transplantation in the same rat strain. To transplant the tumor, approximately 2 g of tumor tissue was pressed in a screen in 20 ml of sterile, pyrogen-free physiological saline. The tissue was sliced from peripheral regions of actively growing tumors. The tumors selected were large but had not yet reached proportions to interfere seriously with activity of the rats. The necrotic areas which occur inside of these tumors were avoided in collection of tissue for transplantation or for experimental purposes. One ml of tumor suspension in saline was injected subcutaneously to transplant the tumor. A new tumor appeared in 7 to 10 days. This grew rapidly and killed the animal in 20 to 30 days. If the tumor suspension was injected intraperitoneally, the animals developed leukemia and died in 10 to 15 days. Over 90% of all rats injected either way died from effects of lymphosarcoma. Non-viable tumor suspensions can be prepared readily by blending the mixture in a Waring Blendor for a few minutes.
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