Hepatic bacteriolysins. (Preliminary report.)

Abstract

If pneumococci are deposited by perfusion methods in the liver of a normal rabbit, in the presence of normal rabbit blood, and the infected organ is now incubated at 37° C., a slight multiplication of the deposited pneumococci takes place. After 5 or 6 hours, the tissues begin to be distinctly overgrown by the microörganisms.

If pneumococci are similarly deposited in the liver of an actively immunized rabbit, in the presence of immune rabbit blood, a gradual decrease in the deposited pneumococci is observed. By the end of 5 or 6 hours'incubation, the tissues have usually become relatively sterile. The few remaining microörganisms usually multiply later to form distinct colonies. The microörganisms in the larger hepatic blood vessels, not in contact with the specific parenchyma cells, are not so destroyed.

This hepatic destruction of the pheumococci is not associated with leucocytic accumulations, nor is it necessarily accompanied by phagocytosis by the endothelial cells. There is apparently an hepatic mechanism in the immune animals for the extracellular destruction or digestion of the microorganisms. Pneumococci taken up by the endothelial cells are apparently protected to a certain extent from this destruction.