284 ASCORBIC ACID 



located in hemorrhagic areas were shrunken and stained unusually deeply 

 with eosin. Hart and Lessing^"* observed granules which stained like cal- 

 cium in the muscles of monkeys dying of scurvy.' Hojer^ found that the 

 muscles of scorbutic guinea pigs are affected by the disease at an early stage. 

 In fact, this change was the first sign of scurvy. A wasting of the tissue oc- 

 curred which was an atrophy combined with necrosis and a general hyper- 

 emia. He observed the appearance of certain giant nucleated cells and in 

 some areas an impregnation of the necroses with calcium. Also, there were 

 hemorrhages in the places exposed to mechanical strain or trauma. Meyer^* 

 found that hemorrhagic muscle may be changed so extensively in scurvy 

 as to be scarcely recognizable in microscopic preparations. Marked hy- 

 dropic degeneration was frequently observed, but fatty infiltration was 

 found in only a few of his experimental animals. A pronounced coagulative 

 change to a waxy state was observed in sections of hemorrhagic muscle. 

 Usually in these areas, there was a great increase in the nuclei, the appear- 

 ance of which and the absence of infiltration suggested that they probably 

 arose from the sarcolemma. In some areas there was much, and in others 

 little, evidence of lysis. Nothing but a foam-like residue remained in some 

 places. 



Dalldorf^"^ observed the presence of ruptured cells in striated muscles 

 in scurvy. Invariably there was degeneration of the intercostal muscles of 

 scorbutic guinea pigs. He also noted that exercise would produce identical 

 lesions in other skeletal muscles of scorbutic guinea pigs. The lesions thus 

 appeared to be characteristic of the scorbutic state. Yakovlev^^" stated that 

 experimental scurvy develops earlier and is fatal sooner in animals engaged 

 in muscular work than in those at rest. He also found that muscular effort 

 followed by a rest produced signs of scurvy more than does continuous 

 work. Sekizima^^^ observed multiplication, swelling, and atrophy of the 

 sarcolemma, and in the muscle tissue itself he found swelling, atrophy, 

 fragmentation, a tendency to bleeding, some fatty degeneration, slight cal- 

 cification, and extensive waxy degeneration which he ascribed to an increase 

 in hydrogen ion concentration. A disturbance in amino acid metabolism of 

 scorbutic muscles^^ may possibly be involved in the observed histological 

 defects. Boyle and Irving"^ found differences in the types of change in the 

 muscles in acute and chronic scurvy in guinea pigs. In the acute form, hyaline 

 degeneration of the muscles around the knee joint, ribs, scapulas, and tra- 

 cheas was much less common and nuclear proliferation less pronounced 



los C. Hart and O. Lessing, Der Skorbut der Kloirien Kinder. Ferdinand Enke, Stutt- 

 gart, 1913. 

 los G. Dalldorf, J. Exptl. Med. 50, 293 (1929). 



110 N. N. Yakovlev, J. Physiol. {U.S.S.R.) 30, 391 (1941). 



111 K. Sckizima, Mitt. med. Akad. Kioto 32, 836 (1941). 

 "2 P. E. Boyle and J. T. Irving, Science 114, 572 (1951). 



