The preserving effect of alkali on the blood cells of Limulus.

Abstract

1. According to Leo Loeb (1910) alkali may under certain conditions have a preserving effect on the blood cells of Limulus. 1 If we add a drop of Limulus blood to an excess of an isotonic sodium chloride solution, those amebocytes which come into direct contact with the solution soon send out sharp pseudopodia and lose their granules and become hyaline. Similarly in a watery solution of very weak alkali the cells soon lose their granules and are dissolved; but if both substances are combined, a small amount of alkali being added to the isotonic sodium chloride solution, the cells are preserved much better and their granules may be protected against destruction for a considerable period of time. Alkali may have the same preserving effect even if added to isotonic solutions of anelectrolytes like glucose.

2. This effect of alkali on ameboid cells observed by this method is apparently contrary to the effect of alkali which Loeb and the writer observed by means of the tissue culture method. 2 If the latter procedure is used, alkali causes in the main a more rapid extension and solution of the cells, although even here a preserving effect is noticeable under certain conditions.

Considering this apparent contradiction in the effects of alkali observed, it was necessary to repeat and if possible to extend those earlier experiments, especially in view of the fact that so far they have apparently not been repeated by other investigators.

3. In carrying out such experiments at Woods Hole, last summer, we could confirm the preserving effect of the addition of alkali to isotonic solutions of sodium chloride on the amebocytes of Limulus. We found furthermore that alkali has likewise a preserving effect if added to isotonic solutions of glucose, to which a small amount of sodium chloride has been added.