Bence-Jones' Protein 



JACOB ROSENBLOOM 



PITTSBURGH 



I. Introduction 



In 1847 Bence-Jones presented before the Royal Society of London a 

 paper "On a New Substance Occurring in the Urine of a Patient with 

 Mollities Ossium," in which he described, for the first time, the substance 

 since known as the Bence-Jones' protein. Later he described several prop- 

 erties of this substance, and gave the results of a study of it in his report 

 on mollities ossium. Ebstein (Zeit. /. UroL, 1915, IX, 208) has pointed 

 out that Heller described this substance before Bence-Jones'. The Berice- 

 Jones' protein was rediscovered and described by Kuehne in 1869. It has 

 since been the subject of many investigations, especially by Matthes, El- 

 linger, Magnus-Levy, Jochman and Schumm, Bradshaw, Moffat and Si- 

 mon. Anders and Boston have tabulated all the known cases of multiple 

 myeloma and Bence-Jones' proteinuria with the characteristics of each up 

 to 1903, and reported three new cases. Weber recorded 28 cases prior to 

 1904 and gave the histories of 10 more cases. Moffat recorded 39 cases 

 prior to 1905 and Permin recorded 40 cases up to 1907. Decastello(&) in 

 a recent paper described two more cases and made an analysis of those pre- 

 viously recorded. Martiri has compiled 204 cases and reports one new case. 

 Magnus-Levy (/), and also Grutternick and deGraaf, and recently Walters 

 have succeeded in obtaining Bence-Jones' protein in crystalline form. 



Does Bence-Jones' Protein Occur in Bone? Ellinger(&) succeeded in 

 obtaining Bence-Jones' protein in small amounts from diseased bone- 

 marrow. Hopkins and Savory could not find the substance in the bone- 

 marrow from the cases they studied. Virchow found it in the bone- 

 marrow in cases of osteomalacia, so-called. Barr could not find in the 

 bone-marrow substance of the bone tumor any trace of Bence-Jones' pro- 

 tein or of enzymes. Wood claims to have separated Bence-Jones' protein 

 from a portion of bone affected by multiple myeloma, but could not obtain 

 it from the bone-marrow in any other portion of the body of the patient, 

 Askanazy was able to demonstrate its presence in the bone-marrow of a 

 case of multiple myeloma, but was unable to find it in blood from this 

 patient. Lowery could not detect a trace of Bence-Jones' protein in the 

 marrow of the affected ribs and humerus of Kalischer's case. Weber, 



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