The Oligodynamic Haemolytic and Haemagglutinative Properties of Some of the Heavy Metals.

Abstract

An accidental observation that HgCl₂ in high dilution was powerfully lytic for erythrocytes suspended in an isotonic medium led to the collection of data concerning the effect of many of the commoner salts in concentrations ranging from 0.01 M to 0.0000003M. Progressively doubled dilutions in 0.85% NaCl solution were mixed with equal quantities of washed human cells in 2% suspension, placed, with a fragility test, in a water bath at 37°C. for 1 hour and read finally after some 20 hours'refrigeration at 8°C. The effect of the active salts was decidedly more in evidence at the 20 hour than at the 1 hour reading. The positive results recorded do not pretend to quantitative accuracy because of the considerable variations sometimes observed in repeated tests with cells of slightly different fragility.

Some salts were tested also with sheep and with rabbit cells; the latter were rather more sensitive to lysis and were involved in a peculiar phenomenon that was not observed with the other 2 types of erythrocytes. In the weakest partially effective lytic dilutions of the mercury salts the unhemolyzed cells were gathered in a tough film.

The hemolytic effect of the mercurials was surprisingly little diminished by the presence of even an excessive quantity of serum in the isotonic diluting medium.

Negative results were obtained with colloidal gold, BaCl₂.2H₂O, CaCl₂, Co(NO₃)₂.6H₂O, FeSO₄(NH₄)₂SO₄.6H₂O, K₃AsO₄, KAsO₂, KCl, KCN, K₂C₂O₄.H₂O, K₂CrO₄, K₄Fe(CN)₆.3H₂O, KHCO₃, K₂HPO₄, KI, KIO₃, KNO₃, K₃PO₄, K₂SO₄, K₂S₂O₈, Li₂CO₃, Li₂SO₄, MgCl₂.6H₂O, MgSO₄, MgSO₄.7H₂O, NaBO₂, Na₂B₄O₇.10H₂O, NaF, Na₂Fe(CN)₅NO.2H₂O, Na₂HPO₄.12H₂O, NaNO₂, Na₂S₂O₃.5H₂O, Na₂WO₄.2H₂O, NH₄Br, NH₄C₂H₃O₂, NH₄Cl, (NH₄)₂CO₃.H₂O, (NH₄)₂C₂O₄.H₂O, NH₄NO₃, (NH₄)₂SO_4.