VIII. EFFECTS OF DEFICIENCY IN ANIMALS 279 



ide material was not marketll}' water-soluble and appeared not to i)e re- 

 movable with hyaluronidase. 



An effect of ascorbic acid, apparently opposite to that described l)y Pirani 

 and Catchpole, has been con\'incingly demonstrated by several investi- 

 gators."'^' A disaggregating effect of the vitamin on body fluids containing 

 hyaluronic acid was first shown by Robertson et aL,"-^^ who studied its 

 influence on the viscosity of mucins from the vitreous body and synovial 

 fluid. Skanse and Sunblad^' obtained the same type of results with solutions 

 of reportedl}^ pure hyaluronic acid isolated from various sources. Traces 

 of copper accelerated the disaggregating effect of ascorbic acid. The most 

 interesting aspect of this line of investigation was the finding that ascorbic 

 acid and hydrogen peroxide acting together produce a very rapid degrada- 

 tion effect. Hydrogen peroxide alone has also been found to have a depoly- 

 merizing action.^-' ^' DaubenmerkF^ has shown that the effect of an equi- 

 molar mixture of ascorbic acid and hydrogen peroxide increases with rising 

 concentrations, a result which is not found with ascorbic acid alone. His 

 studies in vivo on both hviman subjects and rabbits show'ed that with high 

 concentrations of the mixture of ascorbic acid and hydrogen peroxide there 

 occurs a very pronounced spreading effect in the subcutaneous tissue and 

 of the same magnitude as that produced with hyaluronidase. Since the 

 oxidation of ascorbic acid w'as active only under aerobic conditions, it might 

 possibly indicate that a labile peroxide was involved in the reaction. 

 Barron et al}^ suggested that hydrogen peroxide is probably formed during 

 the autoxidation of ascorbic acid. It thus appeared possible that hydrogen 

 peroxide may have been involved in producing the depolymerization effects 

 even in those experiments in which it had not been added. Since the addi- 

 tion of pure catalase did not inhibit the reaction in such experiments, it 

 seemed questionable^- that peroxides w-ere involved in the reaction. How- 

 ever, the catalase control of the situation has not been settled s^a.b.sea.b 

 since peroxidases, pyruvates and compounds with free SH groups such as 



" W. V. B. Robertson, M. W. Ropes, :ind W. Bauer, Am. J. Physiol. 126, 609 (1939)- 

 78 W. V. B. Robertson, M. W. Ropes, and W. Bauer, Biochem. J. 35, 903 (1941). 

 '3 D. McClean and C. W. Hale, Nature 145, 866 (1940). 

 8« G. Favilli, Xature 145, 866 (1940). 



81 J. Madinaveitia and T. H. 11. Quibell, Biochem. J. 35, 453 (1941). 



82 B. Skanse and L. Sunblad, Acta Phijsiol. Scand. 6, 37 (1943). 



83 W. Daubenmerkl, Acta Pharmacol. Toxicol. 7, 153 (1951). 



8< E. S. G. Barron, R. H. DeMeio, and F. Klemperer, J. Biol. Chem. 112, 625 (1935). 



86»D. Cavallini, Arch, fisiol. 45, 189 (1946). 



8sb E. Stotz, C. J. Harrer, M. O. Schultze, and C. G. King, J. Biol. Chcm. 120, 129 



(1937). 

 86« M. G. SevaK, Biochem. Z. 267, 211 (193.3). 

 s^b D. Cavallini, Boll. soc. ital. biol. sper. 22, 169 (1946). 



