STUDIES ON BLOOD CELL METABOLISM

Abstract

1. The respiratory metabolism of non-nucleated mammalian erythrocytes is enormously accelerated and approaches the magnitude of the metabolism of the nucleated erythrocytes of birds on the addition of methylene blue (and certain other dyes), to a final concentration of 0.005–0.0005 per cent. 2. In the presence of methylene blue the respiration is accelerated even when M/1000 KCN is also present. 3. The accelerated respiration due to methylene blue occurs at room temperature but it is most active at 38°. 4. Methylene blue in the above concentration accelerates the respiration of avian (goose) erythrocytes to a much smaller extent than it does the respiration of the erythrocytes of mammalian blood, while the effect upon anemic goose blood seems to be less than it is upon cells of normal goose blood. 5. Owing to a rather large initial carbon dioxide formation in defibrinated blood on incubation, which may not be related to the immediate respiratory process, proper respiratory quotients cannot be obtained in whole blood. When the cells are separated from the serum and suspended in Locke's solution, respiratory quotients are obtained upon incubation comparable to those of other resting mammalian cells, as well as of the actively respiring erythrocytes of birds. 6. The hypothesis is advanced that methylene blue acts in the rôle of an oxygen carrier, supplying a substance which has disappeared from adult mammalian non-nucleated erythrocytes and restoring their metabolic activity to an extent comparable to that of the young immature forms, or to that of the actively respiring avian (goose) blood.