EFFECTS ON TISSUE FUNCTIONS 



505 



quinone damage to the eyes, arising principally from dusts in chemical 

 plants, has attracted a good deal of attention since there is gradual develop- 

 ment of opacity and discoloration. It is rather surprising that so little has 

 been done on the irritant properties of the fungistatic quinones, since these 

 will to some extent determine the clinical usefulness of these agents. 



A very interesting investigation of the pain reactions and inflammation 

 resulting from metabolic inhibition produced by the quinones was made 

 by Herz (1954). He attempted to correlate the depression of aerobic carbo- 

 hydrate metabolism with the reactions seen when the quinones are injected 

 intracutaneously. The concentrations required to elicit pain and inflam- 

 mation are shown in the accompanying tabulation; inflammation was meas- 



ured by observing capillary dilatation in the frog tongue. These quinones 

 act very rapidly and pain is usually experienced immediately upon injec- 

 tion, A test for inflammation in the rabbit eye to some extent parallels the 

 vasodilatation in that 1,4-naphthoquinone is the most potent, with tolu- 

 quinone weaker, jj-benzoquinone still weaker, and the substituted naphtho- 

 quinones relatively inactive. Insufficient enzyme or metabolic work was 

 done to make correlations, but there seems to be a rough correlation be- 

 tween the abilities to produce pain and vasodilatation, although a notable 

 exception is 3-methylmenadione, which does not inhibit oxidative enzymes 

 well, is a weak elicitor of pain, and yet is the most potent quinone tested 

 with respect to vasodilatation. It may well be that inhibition of keto acid 

 oxidation is responsible for some of these actions, but additional mechanisms 

 must be involved. 



