PROTEOSE INTOXICATIONS AND INJURY OF BODY PROTEIN

Abstract

Proteose injections in dogs cause vomiting, diarrhea, temperature reactions, low blood pressure, prostration, and, after large doses, an excess of antithrombin with incoagulable blood. A single proteose injection, for example one-half a lethal dose, causes abrupt clinical reactions in a normal dog with apparent complete recovery within 24 to 48 hours. The nitrogen elimination curve in a fasting dog under such conditions shows a great rise in total urinary nitrogen. The apex of the curve usually falls during the second 24 hour period following the injection. This rise may be over 100 per cent increase above the mean base-line nitrogen level. It does not fall promptly to normal but declines slowly in 3 to 5 days or more toward the original base-line (Text-fig. 1). This speaks for a definite cell injury with destruction of considerable protein substance due to a single proteose injection. The disturbance of cell equilibrium is not rapidly or promptly restored to normal. A dog which has received previous proteose injections is partially immune or tolerant to subsequent injections of proteose. These dogs, as a rule, show less intense clinical reactions and less rise in the curve of nitrogen elimination following a unit dose of standard proteose as compared with normal or non-immune controls. The proteose used in these experiments was prepared as described from material obtained in cases of intestinal obstruction or of closed intestinal loops. These experiments explain the sharp rise in blood non-protein nitrogen which follows within a few hours the injection of a toxic proteose. They also point to the correct explanation of the high non-protein nitrogen of the blood found in intestinal obstruction or with closed intestinal loops.