CHAPTER XX 

 HEMOLYSINS 



Hemolysis is the term applied to the solution or lysis of red blood- 

 corpuscles. Strictly speaking, it would include the disintegration and 

 solution of the stroma, although in practice the term is applied to any 

 process in which the cells are so injured as to liberate hemoglobin into 

 the surrounding fluids, with or without solution of the stroma. 



Hemolysis may be caused by various physical, chemical, and specific 

 agencies. The prolonged agitation of blood with glass beads, for in- 

 stance, may result in the mechanical rupture of erythrocytes. The 

 addition of blood to hypotonic solutions of sodium chlorid or to plain 

 water, results in ready and complete hemolysis, the fluid being trans- 

 formed from an opaque red suspension of erythrocytes to a clear, trans- 

 parent red fluid. Various chemicals, such as acids and alkalis, may also 

 produce hemolysis. As previously stated, a few bacterial toxins, such 

 as tetanolysin and staphylolysin, are known to be hemolytic; the same 

 is true of certain vegetable toxins, such as abrin and ricin, and of some 

 animal toxins, such as cobra, toad, and scorpion venoms. 



Just as bacteria may be killed and possibly broken up by specific 

 bacteriolytic amboceptors and complements, so, in like manner, hemol- 

 ysis may be caused by specific hemolytic antibodies known as hemolysins. 

 Working in unison with complements, the mechanism of both bacterio- 

 lysis and serum hemolysis is probably identical. The simplicity of 

 hemolytic experiments, the rapidity with which they may be performed 

 and terminated, and the ease with which hemolysis may be observed 

 by the naked eye have rendered the specific serum hemolysins particu- 

 larly useful in the study of amboceptors and of complements, and of 

 cytolytic phenomena in general. In fact, bacteriolysis was not thor- 

 oughly understood until Bordet discovered the hemolysins, and demon- 

 strated the analogy that exists between bacteriolysis and hemolysis, a 

 discovery that led to a vast amount of research work and controversy, 

 to many important discoveries, and to the final evolvement of diagnostic 

 reactions of great value. 



Historic. For many years physiologists were aware that the bloods 

 of various animals transfused into man or animals of a different species 



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