Abstract
Since the liver undergoes advanced degenerative changes with chloroform poisoning it is possible that proteolytic enzymes are set free and perhaps temporarily accumulate in the blood. Studies of Dr. Dochez (these Proceedings, p. 97) furnish evidence that the normal liver contains two enzymes: (a) The well known autolytic enzyme which causes proteolysis with greatest activity in a weakly acid medium, and (b) an enzyme which after activation with acid (like trypsin formed from trypsinogen of the pancreas) digests with greatest activity in a weakly alkaline medium.
The normal blood serum contains enzymes which digest proteins. Serum undergoes slight autolysis in the presence of an acid medium (0.2 per cent, acetic acid) but fails to autolyze in a neutral or alkaline medium (0.2 per cent, sodium carbonate). Nevertheless Hedin has shown that the globulin fraction of the serum obtained by one-third saturation with ammonium sulphate contains an enzyme which digests protein in alkaline or neutral media but is inactive in acid. The albumin fraction of the serum obtained by complete saturation with ammonium sulphate after removal of the globulin contains a thermo-labile antibody which inhibits the action of the enzyme associated with the globulin fraction, so that the mixture of globulin and albumin in the whole serum causes no proteolysis.
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