CAMPBELL 



and even the rabbit sera that clot very poorly, are very low in 

 complement. Complement has always been associated with clot- 

 ting, I don't know just what the connection is, but the French 

 used to consider prothrombin. Well, that turned out to be not 

 true, but these hibernating squirrels have practically no com- 

 plement, and in rabbits' sera that have been stored for a while, 

 the complement goes down; it goes along with the blood clotting. 

 It would be interesting to study the complement titer which might 

 go down very rapidly in some of these patients where the blood 

 clotting goes down after hypothermia. 



BLAIR: Yes, this occurs only at fairly deep levels of hypo- 

 thermia, and I think it is important to bring this out. It has been 

 traced to reduction of platelets, and this is probably due to trap- 

 ping in the capillaries. The periods of hypothermia at this level 

 are so short that it is quite unlikely that anjrthing happens to 

 the fundamental mechanisms that involve the clotting. Whether 

 there is any actual alteration in the protein response is probably 

 unlikely for these short periods. 



CAMPBELL: But even if the complement was reduced for a 

 short period, it might play a role. 



TRAPANI: Are any of these serum changes detectable before 

 hibernation, or just following hibernation? 



CAMPBELL: This is the problem, of course, and, let's see, 

 maybe Dr. Tunevall could tell us about this work in Sweden on 

 the polypeptide from the brown fat. I think they have been work- 

 ing on it in the porcupine. This is the problem that really in- 

 trigues me. The brown fat evolves during hibernation; and even 

 the shaved rabbits will begin to show a little brown fat. This 

 has always been associated with hibernation. If you could iso- 

 late a polypeptide, it would be the perfect anesthetic. This was 

 realized, I think, quite a few years ago. 



88 



