Abstract
A number of materials have been used as substitutes for blood in the treatment of shock and hemorrhage. Acacia solutions were used rather extensively for this purpose during World War I, mainly as a result of the work of Bayliss. 1 Later investigators have shown that there are many dangers attendant upon the intravenous use of acacia. Andersch and Gibson 2 reported that about one-half of the injected acacia accumulated in the liver. Yuile and Knutti 3 found that after repeated injections of acacia in dogs the liver weight increased 5 or 6 times and that sometimes as much as 8 to 10% of acacia (by weight) was found in the liver.
Pectin sols, having physical properties similar to those of acacia, should show the same advantages for transfusion purposes and yet, due to their different chemical constitution, might not cause damage by storage in the liver. The characteristic constituent of acacia, a gum exudate from certain tropical trees, is aldobionic acid which is unusually resistant to hydrolysis. Pectin, however, is a normal constituent of fruits and vegetables used for human food and is rather easily hydrolyzed in mildly acidic or alkaline systems and by many enzymes. Its molecule, with a weight of 150,000 to 300,000 is composed of chains of partially esterified galacturonic anhydride units. 4
A general study of the effect of pectin in the circulatory system of rabbits has been in progress in this Department for the past 3 years. Various types of pectin in solutions of different concentrations have been injected intravenously into rabbits, particular attention being given to the effects upon organs involved with the circulatory mechanism. No ill effects of any kind have been observed.
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