THE BACTERICIDAL SUBSTANCES IN FIBRIN. 



By A, F. Coca. 



{From the Biological Department of the Krehs Institut, Heidelberg (Professor 

 von Dungern, Director), and the Biological Laboratory, Bureau of Science, 

 Manila, P. I.) 



The claim has been made, in recent years, that fibrin is a carrier of 

 considerable quantities of bactericidal and hsemolytic substances and 

 therefore is an important therapeutic means in the combating of infec- 

 tions, chiefly of a localized inflammatory nature. 



In 1904 Ottolenghi ^ published the results of experiments with Bac. 

 anthracis which seemed to show in the fibrin of certain animals — rabbit, 

 ass, and horse — the presence of substances capable of reactivating an 

 anti-anthrax serum. Such substances were lacking in the fibrin of the 

 guinea pig, ox, and dog, the serum of which animals is, in this respect, 

 likewise inert. 



According to the later experiments of Sieber - nonspecific bactericidal 

 substances can be obtained from fibrin by extraction with chloroform- 

 thymol water during five to ten days. 



A more recent contribution to this question has been made by S. 

 Bergel,^ who claims to liave found both antibodies and complement in 

 washed fibrin, and who was the first to make practical use of this element 

 of the blood as a therapeutic agent. Proceeding upon the assumption 

 that all the early tissue and vascular changes taking place in the process 

 of inflammation have for their purpose the combating of the causative 

 micioorganisms and tlieir toxic products, Bergel has endeavored to 

 demonstrate in fibrin the presence of the two categories of bactei'icidal 

 substances, namely, complement and immune Ijody. Instead, however, 

 of experimenting directly with pathogenic organisms, as his predecessors 

 had done, he chose, as an analogous and more convenient system, red 

 blood corpuscles and the specific ha?molysins and ha^magglutinins. A 

 few experiments were also made with bacterial agglutinins. 



The fibrin extract was prepared by Bergel in the following manner: 

 blood drawn from a vein was whipped until all the fibrin liad collected 



^Centralbl. f. Bakt., etc. (1904), 37, 584. 



'Ibid. (1905), 38, 571. 



' Deutsche mcd. Wcsmchr. (1908), 34, 309. 



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