DIGESTIVE ACTIVITY OF MESENCHYME AND 

 ITS DERIVATIVES. 



II. Proteins as Object (A. EDESTIN.) 



VERA DANCHAKOFF AND S. M. SEIDLIN, 

 DEPARTMENT OF ANATOMY, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. 



i. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM. 



The recently obtained results regarding the digestive activity 

 of the adult splenic cells of the fowl upon two mammalian tumors, 

 the Ehrlich sarcoma and the Crocker Fund tumor 180, have raised 

 a series of problems. Owing to the complexity of the conditions 

 involved in the experiments referred to, they could not be easily 

 attacked and solved at that time. 



Has the embryonic mesenchyme, found to be powerless against 

 the proliferation of the two heterogenous tumors in the fowl, no 

 power at all to digest foreign proteins in dead or living form? 

 Is only the adult mesenchyme of the spleen to be regarded as a tis- 

 sue endowed with a specific digestive function, or can any mesen- 

 chymal cell and possibly some of its derivatives, wherever found 

 in the organism, exhibit under definite conditions one of the most 

 fundamental powers of living matter, i.e., that of digest- 

 ing participate proteins? Finally, the act of digestion performed 

 by a group of cells, in a well-defined region of the organism, is 

 it to be regarded as a purely local phenomenon, or as a process, 

 the effects of which extend beyond the boundaries of the tissue 

 directly involved? 



These questions can be answered only in a fragmentary and 

 insufficient way on the basis of already known data. Embryonic 

 mesenchymal cells were occasionally observed to exercise a 

 phagocytic and digestive action upon dead or weakened cells, 

 but little is known as to whether they possess a similar power 

 against foreign protein. Other than splenic mesenchymal cells 



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