Kaname Saito

Biochemical Studies on the Fish Blood-VII

The red corpuscles of a few species of the sea water fishes were found to be more readily hemolysed than those of the fresh water fishes, when they were subjected to hemolysis in a series of hypotonic NaCl solution of various concentrations. Among the sea water fishes examined, the red corpuscles of shark, and other migratory fishes such as bonito and mackerel, were more labile* than those of the bottom fishes (Table 1 & Fig. 1). The relationships among hemoglobin, nonprotein-N content and the stability of red corpuscle were shown in Fig. 2: it was suggested that in the case of shark blood, the high content of non-protein-N compounds might bring about some effects to the stability of red corpuscle. In addition, it was found that the stability of the red corpuscle of the fish died in agony or stored after death diminished in course of storage (Table 2). Thus, it may be said that the stability of red corpuscles upon hemolysis might not be independent on the physiological state and the freshness of fish body. * In the present text the threshold salt concentration for hemolysis was conveniently used in terms of “resistance”, to compare the stability.

Biochemical Studies on the Fish Blood-VI

It was found that the red corpuscles of the teleosts studied increased their size, when the salt concentration of the hypotonic solution spproached the threshold concentration where the hemolysis of the corpuscle begins. In this case, the oval form of the natural red corpusele was deformed into the round one. In hypertonic (5%) NaCl solution, however, the dwindled red corpuscle appeared (Table 1). In contrast to other fishes; shark red corpuscle was found to become larger than the normal corpuscle even in the hypertonic solution. In the case of the sea water, fishes, the hemolysis of the red corpuscle took place at the higher concentrations compared to the case of the fresh water fishes. By estimating the dissolved hemoglobin in terms of the optical density, the hemolysis curve was easily obtained (Figs. 1 & 2).