Abstract
Experimental studies 1 established the direct action of the nu-cleinate molecule and of the nucleotides comprising it on the myeloid centers in bone marrow. Peripheral leucocytoses sometimes reaching 100,000 per cu. mm. and persisting for 3 to 4 days followed large single intravenous dosages (1 gm.) of these materials in normal rabbits.
More recent studies 2 have shown that daily injections of 0.35 gm. each of the pentose nucleotides in rabbits for a brief period (5 to 7 days) will produce an hyperplasia of the myeloid tissues in marrow, as proved by serial biopsies, with a definite absolute increase in granulocytes in the general circulation. During the succeeding 7 weeks the peripheral count returned gradually to the preinjection level and the bone marrow resumed its normal myeloplasia.
The nucleinate molecule, thus apparently possessing the property of direct myelopoietic stimulation, has been utilized to determine the inherent capacity of normal rabbit's marrow to respond under circumstances of long continued maximal stimulation. It was desired to test especially the stability of the normal mechanism of maturation and delivery and to see if an uncontrolled marrow hyperplasia with a leukemic arrhythmia in the peripheral blood could be made to supplant the more orderly processes observed in the acute leucocytic responses. 3 Or, it was thought that under such a continuous bombardment it might be possible to exhaust the ability of the marrow to respond with the gradual development of a relative hypoplasia or aplasia of the myeloid elements.
After observing 2 normal female rabbits (0-80 and 0-81) for one month, while adequate base line determinations of temperature, weight and blood cytology assured their suitability for this study, the daily intravenous injection of sodium nucleinate was started. The solutions were made up each day in normal saline prepared from fresh glass distilled water.
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