Abstract
Summary
The intravenous administration of the dye, safranin O, to rabbits and dogs produces selective renal tubular necrosis, involving predominantly the proximal convoluted tubules. The histologic picture very closely resembles that observed in heavy metal poisoning.
Safranin O, in a dose of 10 mg per kg, produces minimal histologic injury in the kidney in rabbits, which is readily and rapidly repaired. The intravenous administration of 20 mg per kg is followed by more extensive and severe necrosis of the proximal convoluted cortical tubules, which is, in perhaps half the animals, reflected in elevation of the blood NPN. Increasing the dose to 40 mg per kg results in almost complete necrosis of the renal proximal convoluted tubular epithelium, as well as some damage to the distal tubules; this dose is probably uniformly fatal to rabbits. With all amounts of the substance, noteworthy lesions of other organs than the kidney, in the absence of examination of the brain, appear to be limited to a relatively mild degree of fatty degeneration and sinusoidal congestion of the liver.
The suggestion is made and evidence cited that the nephrotoxic action of safranin, as well as that of certain other nephrotoxic organic compounds, parallels the action of heavy metals biochemically as well as pathologically, and that these organic compounds exert their nephrotoxic effect by acting as inhibitors of vital enzyme systems.
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