RELEASE OF CYTOST 69 



Hildebrandt (1893) found that blood serum inhibited 

 the action of trypsin. Since that time many other 

 workers have studied this effect and it is now known 

 with certainty that some substance present in the 

 serum inactivates all proteolytic enzymes which may 

 find their way into the blood. For our purpose it is 

 not necessary to consider the various hypotheses which 

 have been advanced to explain this fact. 



As we have seen endocellular proteases may diffuse 

 from injured cells into the blood. Under normal cir- 

 cumstances, the inhibitory substances present in the 

 serum may diffuse into injured cells and perhaps there 

 inhibit the activities of the proteolytic enzymes. Any 

 factor which prevents such an inhibition will there- 

 fore enhance the rapidity of the autolytic process. 

 Simniezki (1902) found that depending upon the 

 concentration used, alcohol either weakened or com- 

 pletely inhibited the antienzymatic activity of blood. 

 In connection with the experiments on shock pro- 

 duced by general anesthesia the author (Turck, 1903) 

 compared the antiferment action of serum from nor- 

 mal animals with that obtained from animals that 

 had shown symptoms of shock induced by anesthesia. 

 For this purpose the well known Mett method of meas- 

 uring proteolysis was adapted as follows: egg albu- 

 min was aspirated into glass capillary tubes of 1 to 

 2 mm. diameter and coagulated by heating to 95° C. 

 for a short time. The tube containing the coagulated 

 protein was broken into short lengths and these were 

 added along with proteolytic enzymes to the sera 

 under investigation and to normal serum. These 

 preparations were then held at 37° C. for ten hours, 

 after which the proteolytic activity of the mixtures 



