Contributions to the biochemistry of growth : the total nitrogen metabolism of rats bearing malignant new growths / by W. Cramer and Harold Pringle.

  • Cramer, W.
Date:
[1910?]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Contributions to the biochemistry of growth : the total nitrogen metabolism of rats bearing malignant new growths / by W. Cramer and Harold Pringle. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    [Reprinted from the Proceedings of the Royal Society, B. Vol. 82] Contributions to the Biochemistry of Growth*—The Total Nitrogen Metabolism of Rats bearing Malignant New Groivths. By W. Cramer and Harold Pringle. (Communicated by Prof. E. A. Schafer, F.R.S. Received January 25,— Read February 24, 1910.) (From the Physiology Department, University of Edinburgh, and the Imperial Cancer Research, London.) The following experiments were carried out with the object (1) of studying the effect of a rapidly growing neoplasm on the metabolism of the normal animal which bears the tumour, with consideration also of the view that the new growth secretes, as has often been asserted, substances having a deleterious action on the tissues of the animal bearing the tumour; (2) of elucidating the processes determining the rapid proliferation of the cells of a malignant new growth, and the source of the nitrogenous material used by the tumour. In order to obtain facts throwing light on these questions, we have deter¬ mined the nitrogenous metabolism in three rats before and after implantation of a rapidly proliferating malignant new growth. So far as we are aware, no such experiments have been made before. The tumour used for these experiments was a spindle-celled sarcoma of very rapid growth, obtained from the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (tumour J. R. S.). This tumour can be transplanted with a high percentage of success in young animals of 40 to 60 grammes weight; with older rats of over 100 grammes weight the percentage of progressively growing tumours is not so high, and preliminary transient growth occurs more frequently. Since young growing rats did not appear to be suitable for a metabolism experiment in which it was desirable to obtain a constant nitrogen output, we found it necessary to use older animals. Three rats of about the same age and weight were kept on a constant diet of a uniform composition. The diet used consisted of 56 grammes of stale bread made into a pulp with 50 c.c. of milk. Of this pulp 40 grammes were given to each animal in two daily rations. When a constant nitrogen output had been obtained, the rats were inoculated with a measured dose (0T c.c.) of the tumour, and the observations continued for the succeeding 15 days. At the end of the first week tumours could be distinctly felt. On the 16th day after transplantation the rats were killed. One animal (Rat I) had developed * This research is in continuation of paper in ‘Roy. Soc. Proc./ B, vol. 80, 1908, p. 263. &