Abstracts of Special Interest

S OF SPECIAL INTEREST THE RESTORATION OF METHEMOGLOBIN BY MEANS OF GLUTAMIC ACID. A. Al. Genkin and M. C. Volkov. From the Sverdlovsk Medical Institute. Bulletin of Experimental Biology and Medicine, USSR. 47:50, 1959. A lethal dose of sodium nitrite was injected into rats. All died. The average methemoglobin content of blood collected just before death was 72 per cent. Another group of rats received a simultaneous injection of sodium glutamate. They were all free of symptoms, and their average blood methemoglobin was 43 per cent. The methemoglobin content of blood to which sodium nitrite was added in vitro was 69 per cent. Addition of sodium glutamate as well resulted in a methemoglobin content of 20 per cent. The effects observed could be due either to the inhibition of methemoglobin formation or to its subsquent conversion into hemoglobin.-J. J. B. SOME EFFECTS ON BLOOD COAGULATION OF ERYTHROCYTES AND OTHER CELLS. J. R. O’Brien. From the Central Laboratory, Milton Road, Portsmouth, England. J.Clin.Path. 12:45, 1959. Intact red cells are inactive in the “stypven time” and other clotting tests, but red cell ghosts suspended in water and red cell membranes disrupted by various means have activity similar to that of platelet lipoid. Red cell ghosts lose this activity when suspended in saline. HeLa cells, human leukocytes and sperm all showed no activity when intact, but plateletlike activity when fragmented. Extracts of various guinea pig tissues also showed plateletlike activity when added to human plasma. It is suggested that dead tissue cells may play a part in the extravascular coagulation associated with inflammation. An association is postulated between loss of osmotic activity and the development of stickniess and coagulant activity of the cell membrane, and it is suggested that these properties may be related to the orientation of cephalin molecules at the surface.-R. M. H. GLUTAMIC OXALACETIC TRANSAMINASE ( GOT ) Aci-zvrrv OF RED CELLS AND PLASMA IN DISEASES OF THE BLOOD. 1. INCREAsE OF RED CELL GOT ACTIVITY IN HEMOLYTIC Disoiwm s. M. Gepner-Wo nlewska and Z. Traczyk. From Institute of Hematology, Warsaw, Pol.Tyg.Lek. No. 32 1473, 1959. For personal use only. on November 13, 2017. by guest www.bloodjournal.org From