OKLAHOMA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 25 



XII. THE RED AND WHITE CORPUSCLES AND CATA- 



LASE IN THE BLOOD OF COMPLEMENT 



DEFICIENT GUINEA PIGS 



L. B. Nice, Alma J. Neill and H. D. Moore. 



I'^roin the Lalioratories of Physiology and Bacteriology in the 

 University of Oklahoma. 

 A strain of guinea pigs deficient in complement was developed 

 at the Vermont Agricultural Experiment Station.* In that lahora- 

 tory these animals were found to be less resistant to disease and 

 n:ore susceptilJe lo changes in temperature than normal guinea 

 pigs. This lowered resistance suggested to us that other factors 

 besides comjilerr.ent might be lacking in the blood of these anim.als. 

 A series of investigations vs'as planned to study the blood elements 

 of tiiese guinea pigs. In this research we have determined the num- 

 ber of red ar.d white corpuscles and the amount of catalase and 

 complement in the l)lood of 12 complement deficient guinea pigs 

 atid an equal number of controls which were kept under the 

 same experimental conditions. Later 10 more norm.al guinea pigs 

 were tested in the same manner. 



Summary 



1. A relation between the number of red blood corpuscles and 

 lack of complement was found in our animals. The complement 

 deficient guinea pigs averaged from 18 to 34 per cent fewer red 

 l^lood corpuscles per cublic millimeter of Ijlood than did the normal 

 animals. This decreased numljer should lessen the oxygen carrying 

 power of the blood, and this in turn would decrease the available 

 oxygen in the tissues and may account for the lowered resistance 

 of these animals to zero temperature. 



2. The average number of white l)lood corpuscles was higher 

 in the complem.ent deficient line than in any of the lines of normal 

 animals. This is an indication of a protective device on the part of 

 the organism to make up for the lack of complement as a defense 

 against foreign invasion. 



3. No consistant relationship was foimd between the number 

 <jf white and red l)lood corpuscles and the amount of catalase in 

 the blood. 



4. Two sets of normal guinea pigs fell into two groups as 

 regards the catalase content of the blood ; in half of the animals of 

 each set the catalase Vv^as low, while in the other half it was more 

 than twice as high. This fifty-fifty ratio in two different sets of 

 normal guinea pigs suggests that high and low catalase may he 

 Mendelian characters. 



*Moore, H. D., Jour. Immunology 1919, Vol. IV, p. 425. 



