Abstract
We previously discussed the distribution of lipase in tissues of normal and experimentally infected leprous rats, 1 as observed by us preliminary to a study of changes in lipolytic activity during treatment of infected animals. Our subsequent observations demonstrating that there is no significant change in lipolytic activity of tissues of leprous animals during treatment are reported elsewhere. 2 This present report is concerned with changes in the lipase content of the leproma during intensive “plancha” treatment 3 with various antileprotic drugs.
The lipolytic activity of 60 untreated lepromata and 36 treated lepromata was estimated by Loevenhart's method 4 as used by us previously, and was found to be 0.16±0.03% and 0.15±0.04% respectively. Approximately half the material in both cases was obtained by biopsy and the other half from animals dying or sacrificed. It is apparent from these determinations that there is no tendency during treatment for the lipolytic activity of lepromatous subcutaneous tissue to approach the value of 0.83±0.07% found by us for normal subcutaneous tissue of rats with “early stage” leprosy.
No correlation was found between apparent lipase content of lepromata and type of antileprotic drug used. The average lipolytic activity of lepromata of rats treated over 6 months with maximum tolerated doses of the more important drugs considered was: ethyl chaulmoograte, 0.15±0.03%; “Alepol,” 0.15±0.05%; ethyl di-n-heptyl acetate,† 0.11±0.04%; sodium dihydrochaulmoogryl p-phenetidine sulfonate, 0.12±0.05%; sodium chaulmoogryl p-phenetidine sulfonate, 0.13±0.02%.
Two possible explanations of the cause of the low lipolytic activity of leprous tissues were examined experimentally.
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