Studies on the blood of the albino rat. Its normal cellular constituents. Their reaction to sarcoma growth and to benzol treatment

Abstract

While working with a transmissible sarcoma of the white rat it was found desirable to note the changes in the blood picture during the growth of the tumor. With the idea of establishing the normal, a careful search of the available literature on the blood of the albino rat (and also the common wild rat) was made. No reports on the blood plates and only a few on the leucocytes of this animal could be found. For this reason, and because of the growing importance of the white rat as a laboratory animal and its availability for tumor work, it has seemed advisable to contribute this small series of studies on the blood of albino rats, with special reference to the blood plates in the normal animal. The changes in the blood picture due to sarcoma growth and benzol treatment have been observed.

Hans Hirschfeld 1 in a paper on the differential morphology of the white cells of the blood reported the usual types of cells to be present in the blood of rats of mixed and albino breeds. He noted especially a cell with annular nucleus and fine eosinophilic granules. He did not report the usual number of white cells or their differential count.

Pappenheim 2 was the first to report in brief the changes in the blood of the albino rat coincident with the progress of fatal transmissible sarcoma. His conclusions were that, except for a very slight secondary anemia and a great degree of polychromatophilia and granular degeneration of the red cells, there was little reaction on the part of the blood until the tumor ulcerated, when a marked leucocytosis appeared.

Hirschfeld 1 reached much the same conclusions, but reported finding normoblasts in the blood.