Effect on White Blood Cells in Rabbit by Ligation of Common Bile Duct. ∗

Jones and Minot 1 have reported that in infectious jaundice, in human beings, the monocytes of the circulating blood are definitely increased in number. Using the supravital technique of Sabin 2 these findings have been corroborated in several cases in the Vanderbilt University Hospital of infectious jaundice. It has further been observed that while the monocytes found in these cases are qualitatively different from those found in the blood of patients having tuberculosis, they nevertheless show more cytoplasmic activity than is customarily the case with the monocytes of the normal individual. The three etiological explanations of these blood changes which seem most probable are: (1) that the rise in monocytes is a direct effect of the invading organism; (2) that it is a specific effect from the retained bile; and (3) that it is a result of some disturbance which has been produced in the liver. If the etiological factor in these changes is dependent upon injury to the liver, the immediate cause may lie either in the production of some injurious agent as a result of the injury to the liver cells, or to disturbed metabolic activity. The following observations are the result of an effort to determine if a specific injury to the liver, caused by a non-infectious process, will produce an increase in the number of the circulating monocytes.

Nine rabbits were carefully standardized by making repeated counts of the peripheral blood, using the supra-vital technique. These animals were then operated upon aseptically, and the common bile duct was ligated above the entrance of the duct from the right posterior lobe, sc3 that only this lobe remained functionally active as far as bile drainage was concerned. The blood was studied at least once a day thereafter until the animals died, or until the blood picture had returned to normal.