Antitryptic Reaction in Pregnancy. 109 



72 (768) 



On the antitryptic reaction exhibited in pregnancy. 



By G. H. A. Clowes and Francis C. Goldsborough. 



[From the Laboratory of Biological Chemistry, State Institute for the 

 Study of Malignant Disease, Buffalo, N. Y.] 



The antitryptic index has been determined in a series of twenty- 

 five pregnant women and their infants. The blood was taken 

 during labor from the vein of the mother, and from the cord of 

 the infant at birth, was allowed to clot and the separated serum 

 employed for tests which were carried out by means of the Oswald 

 viscosimeter, making use of a method previously described. 1 The 

 antitryptic index of the mother's serum was found to range from 

 1.5 to 2.5, averaging about 2, whilst that of the infants was found 

 to range from .9 to 1.2, averaging slightly over 1. The antitryptic 

 index of a series of cancer cases 1 previously reported shows a 

 range of variation from 1.2 to 3.5 and gives an average over 2. 

 It will thus be seen that the blood of this series of twenty-five 

 infants appears to be practically normal. On the other hand the 

 blood of the mothers contains an extremely high percentage of 

 antibodies to trypsin, averaging over twice the normal, a charac- 

 teristic also exhibited by cancer blood. This antitryptic reaction 

 is destroyed by heating the serum to 6o° for Y2 hour in which 

 respect it resembles the complement deviating reaction referred 

 to in the previous paper from which it may be concluded that 

 whilst these two reactions do not follow absolutely parallel lines 

 in a quantitative sense, they probably have a common origin. 

 The fact that reactions of this type invariably occur in preg- 

 nant women and in cancer cases and are entirely absent in 

 infants lends support to the theory that they result from a re- 

 action of the body against enzymes or other products of fetal 

 origin in pregnancy, and similar products derived from the tumor 

 in cancer. 



1 Clowes, Zeilschrift f. Krebsforschung, Vol. XI, page 146. 



