“Spreading” Properties and Mucolytic Activity of Leech Extracts

Abstract

Summary and Conclusions

1. Leech extracts contain a powerful mucolytic enzyme, as shown by its effect on the viscosity of chicken tumor I extracts. 2. Leech head extracts exhibit a mucolytic activity considerably greater than that of similar extracts obtained from the rest of the leech body. A comparable quantitative relationship is found to exist between head and body extracts when tested for another property, e. g., their power to spread in the rabbit skin.

3. The parallelism in the strength of various extracts, as regards both mucolytic activity and spreading power, supports the view that the “mucinase” and the leech spreading factor may be identical.

4. A mucoprotein has been prepared from normal rabbit skin. 5. The viscosity of a skin mucoprotein solution is rapidly and considerably reduced by the action of leech extracts. 6. The effect of leech extracts on the skin mucoprotein in vitro suggests that their ability to spread through the skin may be due, at least in part, to their power to cause hydrolysis or depolymerisation of the same or a similar compound in vivo.