The Monocytic Reaction in Virus III Disease.

Abstract

A study of the circulating blood cells has been made on normal rabbits and on rabbits inoculated with various disease-producing agents including virus III. This filterable virus, indigenous to rabbits, causes well marked lesions of the testicle, skin, and scarified cornea when injected at these sites. In the experiments with this virus, the blood was studied at frequent intervals before and after inoculation by means of quantitative determinations of the red and white cells with standardized pipettes, hemoglobin estimations (New-comber haemoglobinometer), and differential white cell counts of the fresh blood with the supravital technic (vital neutral red).

Three experiments have been carried out. Fresh testicular tissue showing a well developed virus III lesion was ground with sand and normal saline under aseptic conditions and 0.2 or 0.3 cc. of a thick emulsion was injected into one testicle or intracutaneously in the shaved skin of the side of the body. The first experiments comprised 5 normal rabbits which were inoculated intracutaneously and in one testicle; the second series of 5 normal rabbits were inoculated intracutaneously; in the third group, 8 rabbits which had previously been inoculated with a malignant tumor were injected intracutaneously.

The outstanding feature of the observations made was a very marked increase in the number of circulating monocytes, as is shown in the accompanying graph (Fig. 1), which illustrates the findings in the first experiment. In the other series, the results were of the same order but were somewhat less marked, due presumably to the less pronounced reaction associated with the intracutaneous as contrasted with the intratesticular route of inoculation. The results, considered upon a group basis, are recorded as percentage variations from the mean values of 4 counts taken during the week preceding inoculation.