The Action of Colloidal Sulfur on Liver Oxidations

Colloidal sulfur has been used clinically for the production of fever in human beings, (see Shilvock (1) and Wailer and Allen (2) for the literature). One animal experiment has also been reported. Pi&y, Bonnamour, Milhaud, and Guiguonet (3) found that after injection of colloidal sulfur into rabbits, H2S was evident in the breath and that 0.01 gm. per kilo was a toxic dose. Rastelli and Casazza (4) showed that incubation of colloidal sulfur with egg albumin or blood serum reduced the sulfur to H&S. Abderhalden and Wertheimer (5) showed that colloidal sulfur accelerated the oxidation of aldehydes. It was therefore of interest to study its action on the oxygen uptake of tissue preparations. For this purpose a liver preparation was used. It was soon obvious that the effects observed were due to the formation of H2S. Liver incubated anaerobically with colloidal sulfur produced H&S with great rapidity. Aerobically it was produced more slowly, but still in appreciable amounts. The experiments recorded below could be reproduced with H2S. The effect of H,S on tissue oxidation has been studied by Negelein (6) who showed that the oxygen uptake of yeast was inhibited by small amounts, and by Keilin (7) who found that it inhibited the oxidation of cytochrome. Its inhibiting action on yeast fermentation was studied by Neuberg and Perlmann (8), and its action on the isolated heart by Koda (9). Krebs (10) showed that oxidations in which hematin compounds acted as the catalyst were inhibited by H2S.