STUDIES OF ENZYMES AS POSSIBLE FACTORS IN 

 THE DEVELOPMENT OF EDEMA 



4. The influence of proteases on the swelling o£ coUagen and 



fibrin particles in alkalin and acid media containing 



a biological electrolyte 



FRANK R. ELDER and WILLIAM J. GIES 



(Laboratory of Biological Chemistry of Columbia University, at the College of 

 Physicians and Surgeons, New York) 



The chemical and physical coördinations between water and 

 colloids in Hving protoplasm are among the most influential and 

 important nutritional relationships. 



Tracy and Gies recently observed that pepsln increases the absorp- 

 tion of water by particles of fibrin and collagen immersed in dilute 

 Solutions of hydrochloric acid, and that trypsin augments the hydro- 

 philia of elastin particles in Solutions of ammonium hydroxid and 

 sodium carbonate.^ Besides showing that both basic and acidic sub- 

 stances may help proteases to increase the absorption of water by 

 protein colloids, the observations of Tracy and Gies suggest that 

 hydrolases also appreciably influence the absorption of water by 

 protoplasm. From this point of view, edema might be inaugurated 

 by protoplasmic conditions that discoördinate normal enzymic rela- 

 tionships. 



In the light of the foregoing facts and suggestions, the influence 

 of neutral salins on enzymic Stimulation of colloidal hydrophilia 

 becomes a matter of special biological interest. It is well known 

 that common neutral salin substances inhibit and, if sufficiently con- 

 centrated, entirely prevent the normal absorption of water by pro- 

 tein and other colloidal masses immersed in alkalin or acid media. 

 Possibly the salins in and about living cells are also able to prevent 

 special enzymic influences on water absorption and retention by pro- 

 toplasm. The electrolytes in living protoplasm are conceivably 



^ Tracy and Gies: Biochemical Bulletin, 1912, i, p. 467. See also Berg and 

 Gies : Journal of Biological Chemistry, 1906-7, ii, p. 489. 



540 



