Abstract
The experimental studies upon which this communication is based were suggested by an investigation of the necrosis produced in the liver of the dog as the result of injecting hemolytic immune sera of high hemagglutinative power. 1 These necrotic lesions, which are due apparently to an obstruction of the circulation by thrombi composed of fused red blood-corpuscles, vary in position and extent, according to the dose of serum administered. Small doses cause more or less isolated lesions which may occupy any portion of the lobule; large doses produce a diffuse necrosis which spares only the tissue about the larger portal spaces. The uniformity of this necrotic lesion suggested the importance of a study of the repair process which would naturally follow in animals recovering from the acute toxic effects of the injected serum. The extent of the destruction precluded complete regeneration of liver parenchyma, and if the defect was repaired by connective-tissue proliferation, the resulting histological picture would be, except for a difference in the relation between the new tissue and the remainder of the lobule, analogous to cirrhosis in man.
Methods.— Dogs were injected either in the smaller branches of the femoral vein, or in the abdominal cavity, with serum obtained from rabbits which had received repeated injections of red blood-corpuscles of the dog. The dose usually employed was I c.c. of serum to from 500 gm. to 800 gm. of body-weight, and the animals were killed at intervals varying from 48 hours to 36 days
Results.— A majority of the animals die after intervals varying from 4 minutes to 48 hours. In those surviving, hemoglobinuria was a constant phenomenon usually appearing within 18 to 24 hours, persisting 3 to 4 days, and followed for several days by the presence of bile pigment in the urine. The first evidence of repair was mitosis of the liver cells lying at a slight distance from the necrotic areas. The earliest period at which this was seen was 38 hours after injection.
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