Victor P. Seeberg

Preparation and Properties of a Heat‐Treated Human Plasma Protein Fraction

By precipitating a particular mixture of albumins and globulins from an Effluent IV‐1 prepared by a modified fractionation procedure, a safe and osmotically active fraction was obtained from human plasma in high yield. The HTPF thus obtained is devoid of cat depressor activity. Both fibrinogen and gamma globulin can be recovered from plasma by the method described.

Metabolism of Intravenously-Infused Sorbitol

Summary 1. Intravenous infusion of sorbitol in rabbits causes a prompt fructosemia which subsides relatively rapidly following cessation of infusion. A more variable secondary glucosemia occurs following the rise in blood fructose and during the subsidence of the fructosemia. These findings in the intact animal are in accord with previous observations by others on sorbitol metabolism by rat liver slices and homogenates. 2. Although rapidly metabolized, a small amount of sorbitol appears in the urine with infusion rates as low as .33 g/kg/hr.

Elimination of Metrazol

Pharmacological and clinical evidence points to the fact that metrazol is very rapidly detoxicated in the body. The intravenous administration of a convulsive dose produces typical clonic convulsions from which the animal rapidly recovers. There is a possibility that the metrazol might be excreted by the kidneys, and so our first step consisted in eliminating this possibility. Chemical analysis of the urine of cats receiving convulsive doses of metrazol snowed none of the drug to be present in the urine. Bilaterally nephrectomized cats showed the same reaction to a convulsive dose of metrazol as they did before the performance of the nephrectomy. Hinsberg has shown that practically no metrazol is excreted by the intestinal route. It therefore seems logical that metrazol is not excreted but is detoxified. The liver has generally been assumed to be the locale for drug detoxication. We therefore administered phosphorus to cats. Cats treated in this way died from the administration of a dose of metrazol which formerly produced only slight convulsions. The role of the liver was further tested by a comparison of the dose required to produce convulsions when the drug was infused into the marginal ear vein or the portal vein of rabbits. In all cases a larger amount was required to produce convulsions when administered by the portal route. This evidence seems to establish the fact that metrazol is detoxified rather than excreted and that the liver plays an important role in the detoxication process.