The aneurinpyrophosphate content of red and white blood corpuscles in the rat and in man, in various states of aneurin provision and in disease

Abstract

1. 1. Methods are described for accurate counting of red and white blood cells for the determination of the aneurinpyrophosphate (APP) content of these cells. 2. 2. These methods were applied to: a) rat blood (adequately nourished rats and rats on an aneurin-deficient diet); b) human blood (healthy subjects on their usual diet or on an aneurin-deficient diet, and patients). Moreover APP was determined in liver, kidney, brain abd leg-muscle of the rats. 3. 3. The mean values of the APP contents of the blood cells and the tissues of the adequately nourished rats were: red cells: 2.1 γ per 10 11 cells; white cells: 340 γ per 10 11 cells; liver: 12.5 γ per g; kidney: 7.0 γ per g; brain: 3.8 γ per g; leg-muscle: 2.4 γ per g. For rats after 5 days on an aneurin-free diet these values were: red cells: 1.0 γ per 10 11 cell; white cells: 240 γ per 10 11 cells; liver: 4.1 γ per g; kidney: 2.7 γ per g; brain: 3.1 γ per g; leg-muscle: 1.25 γ per g. In the well-fed rat an average leucocyte contains 160 times as much APP as an average erythrocyte. After 5 days without aneurin the ration of the contents of a white and a red cell has risen to 240. So on an aneurin-free diet the content of the red cells decreases more rapidly than the content of the white cells. 4. 4. Thered blood cells of the man have a significantly higher APP content that the red cells of the woman. No significant difference was found between the respective contents of the white cells. The average values were: man: 1.49 γ per 10 11 red cells, 290 γ per 10 11 white cells; woman: 1.28 γ per 10 11 red cells, 270 γ per 10 11 white cells. The ratio of the contents of a white and a red cell is about 200. 5. 5. In men on an aneurin-free diet the APP content of red cells decreases after 5 days to a value significantly lower than normal. White cells appear to lose their APP at approximately the same rate. 6. 6.Red cells in earlier stages of development, as occuring in the blood of some anaemia patients, contain higher amounts of APP than normal red cells. This is also the case for red cells with an abnormally large volume. As a consequence of the abnormal APP contents of the blood of anaemia patients abnormal APP contents of total blood can occur, bearing no relation to the aneurin provision of the body. Therefore a haematological examination should be combined with each APP determination in blood aimed at the detection of a possible aneurin deficiency. The determination of APP in red and white cells is to be preferred to the determination in total blood. Examples are given in which the occurence of aneurin deficiency could be proved to exist by working along these lines.