Studies on high-molecular placental components in connection with pregnancy toxemia. I.

Abstract

1. High-molecular substances (a neutral carbohydrate, a protein precipitable at pH 4.2 (Protein I), a mixture of proteins soluble in glacial acetic acid (Protein II), a mixture of nucleic acids (PNA and DNA) and an itinsulfuric acid) were separated from placentas. Examined physically and chemically, the preparations proved to be mostly contaminated more or less.2. Schultz-Dale assay did not afford a proof of the presence in the sera of pregnancy-toxemic women of antibodies of those components.3. Precipitin test suggested the presence of antibodies of the products in some of the sera of normal-pregnant women and more of the sera of the pregnancy-toxemic.4. The products gave rise to no spasm in the retinal arterioles nor change of intravascular pressure of the carotic artery nor albuminuria in pregnant rabbits, but all of them excepting Protein II caused premature delivery.5. Pregnant rabbits underwent pathological lesions of liver and kidney resembling those in pregnancy toxemia by intravenous injection of the preparations, the degree of change depending on the preparation, although Rossle's characteristic allergic changes were not found in those tissues.6. Proteins I and II proved Schwartzman-active.