Experimental Calcification. 



159 



94 (1026) 



Experimental calcification. 



By Oskar Klotz and May E. Bothwell. 



[From the Pathological Laboratories, University of Pittsburgh, 

 Pittsburgh, Pa.] 



In igo^-G 2 one of us was interested in the process of patho- 

 logical calcification and indicated that in the human the condition 

 was directly related to an antecedent fatty change in the tissues. 

 From the studies then made it was demonstrated that the main 

 factor leading to calcification of diseased organs was the accumula- 

 tion of fatty materials in necrotic areas. The fat in these areas 

 was liberated by the death of cells or was attracted to the areas of 

 necrosis by the products of disintegration. The latter has been 

 further demonstrated in the accumulation of fat by hyaline and 

 amyloid substances. 



Further proof of the relationship of fatty materials to the 

 process of calcification is offered in a series of experiments where 

 fats have been inoculated intravenously into rabbits. Two 

 rabbits have been inoculated with pure olive oil and three with a 

 mixture of cholesterin and olive oil (1— 15) by the ear vein. Doses 

 of 0.5 to I c.c. were given over a period of from one to eight weeks. 

 The animals withstood the inoculations very well and showed no 

 loss in weight. Temporary respiratory difficulty was sometimes 

 observed for the first hour. The cholesterin mixture was usually 

 warmed before giving. 



The best results were obtained with the cholesterin-olive oil 

 mixture after a period of four weeks. The major quantity of the 

 oily injection was filtered out by the lung capillaries and only 

 relatively small amounts reached the distant organs in its original 

 condition. Reactions were recognized in the lung tissue at the 

 end of two weeks when active proliferation of the endothelial 

 lining of the capillaries frequently occluded their lumina or 

 distorted the channels of the arterioles. The proliferating 

 endothelium phagocyted the oil globules and frequently split the 



1 Journal Exper. Med., 1905, VII, p. 633. 

 1 Journal Exper. Med.. 1906, VIII, p. 322. 



