HAEMOLYSIS AND PHAGOCYTOSIS OF RED BLOOD CORPUSCLES Q 



these substances to the phenomenon of the phagocytosis of red blood 

 cells. Our knowledge of this subject was considerably enlarged by 

 Savtchenko (9), who immunised rabbits against the red cells of the 

 guinea-pig. The serum of the former naturally became haemolytic for 

 the red blood cells of the latter. Savtchenko showed that if one injected 

 sterile bouillon into the peritoneal cavity of a guinea-pig, and 24 hours 

 afterwards the washed red cells of another guinea-pig, along with a 

 quantity of the heated serum of the immune rabbit, no haemolysis took 

 place, but phagocytosis of these red cells was marked. On the other 

 hand, in a control guinea-pig injected with the red blood cells, but without 

 the immune serum, no phagocytosis took place. When he injected a 

 fresh non-immune guinea-pig with the red blood cells of another guinea- 

 pig along with the heated immune serum, but without having prevented 

 phagolysis by the appropriate measures, haemolysis took place owing to 

 the cytase or complement being set free by the destruction of the 

 macrophages, consequent on the injection. On injecting a larger 

 quantity of the red cells, both haemolysis and phagocytosis occurred. 



He also performed experiments in vitro, using the same factors 

 as before, and found that under the influence of the immune haemolytic 

 serum, deprived of its alexine by heat, the red blood cells were engulfed 

 by the leucocytes of the guinea-pig which he used as the phagocytic 

 agents, and that no extra-cellular haemolysis occurred. 



From his experiments, Savtchenko concluded that in the serum of a 

 rabbit rendered immune towards guinea-pig's blood, some body was 

 present which made the erythrocytes an easy prey to the leucocytes of 

 another guinea-pig. This was not the alexine, since the property was 

 possessed by sera which had been deprived of that body by heat, and 

 therefore Savtchenko concluded that it was the specific haemolytic 

 fixateur, the amboceptor, which induced the phagocytosis of red cells. 

 This body, he asserted, could act in two ways. It could either attach 

 itself to the phagocyte and stimulate it to engulf the red blood cells, 

 or, by attaching itself to the erythrocytes, could render them an easy 

 prey to the phagocytes. Metchnikoff agreed with Savtchenko, Tarasse- 

 vitch and Levaditi, that the specific fixateur or amboceptor induces 

 phagocytosis. 



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