Lysozyme Titres in Regional Enteritis, Miscellaneous Tissues, Microorganisms, and Excreta.

Abstract

The previously published impression that regional enteritis is a disease characterized by a high lysozyme output and mucosal concn. was confirmed. It was concluded that lysozyme was a local etiologic agent in the pathogenesis of regional enteritis and chronic ulcerative colitis. The pathologic differences between the 2 diseases were considered to be due to the differential tissue responses to injury. Lysozyme assays on miscellaneous tissues gave high results in human fetal tissue, pus, and fluid from an enterocystoma. Assays were low or negative in dog gastric juice, 2 specific human dysentery stools, and 2 mass stool cultures from chronic ulcerative colitis. These results suggested the possibility of a role for lysozyme in the chemistry of rapidly growing normal tissue. The lack of a significant increase in the lysozyme concn. of specific infectious diarrheas and the negative assays on the chronic ulcerative stool cultures confirmed the previous evidence that stool lysozyme increases were not bacterial in origin and indicated that an inflammatory colitis was not necessarily accompanied by significantly elevated lysozyme titers.