The effects were observed of moving male, adult Han:Sprague rats in their cages or of exposure to ether for 1 min on the plasma concentration profiles of 25 blood characteristics linked with stress and shock reactions. 5 min after the stress serum prolactin, corticosterone, thyroid-stimulating hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone, triiodothyronine and thyroxin levels were elevated 150-500% compared with those in blood collected within 100 s of entering the animal room. Heart rate (telemetrically recorded), packed cell volume,, haemoglobin and plasma protein content were 10-20% elevated 2-10 min after cage movement or 2-20 min after ether confrontation over those of controls sampled within 50 s, indicating circulatory and microcirculatory shock reactions. Serum glucose, pyruvate and lactate concentrations rose by 20-100% 1-5 min after cage movement and 1-15 min after ether exposure. Phosphate, calcium, urea, apartate and alanine transferases, alkaline phosphalase and leucine arylamidase were not altered significantly by either stressor, while potassium and bound glycerol fell for 1 min and 5-20 min respectively. The presence of a familiar animal attendant working in the room without touching the cages did not markedly affect the blood characteristics being studied.

No abstract

In an experimental study, employing anaesthetized dogs, it was investigated whether cellular enzymes from peripheral skeletal muscle get into the circulating blood by diffusion across capillary membranes or by lymphatic transport. In the experimental group 1, the animals were anaesthetized only. The plasma activities of the four enzymes measured — lactate dehydrogenase, aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, creatine kinase did not show any mentionable change during a time period of 6 h. In group 2 one hind limb of each animal was moved passively for 1 h. Alanine aminotransferase remained unchanged in plasma, the activities of the three other enzymes increased significantly. In group 3 one hind limb was made hypoxic by clamping the femoral blood vessels for 1 h. No activity changes were observed. When the period of hypoxia was followed by a 1-hour period of passive movement in group 4, the alterations in plasma activities were almost identical to those observed in group 2. In group 5 the experimental procedure was as in group 4, in addition the lymph from the thoracic duct was quantitatively withdrawn. The enzyme activities in plasma revealed a tendency to decrease rather than increase. Lymph flow increased significantly as well as the lymphatic activities of those enzymes which have high intracellular activities in muscle. The results prove, that enzymes from muscle are transported from the interstitial into the intravascular compartment mainly by lymphatic transport. Indications were found that the interruption of blood flow in one hind limb did not result in an enzyme release from muscle cells. It is discussed how changes in lymph flow, occurring during physical exercise for example, affect enzyme activities in plasma.

Summary:The catalytic aetivity of up to fifteen enzymes was investigated in the liver, heart, skeletal muscle, kidney (medulla, cortex), brain, hing, duodenum, spieen and pancreas from man and animals. Human specimens were obtained from autopsies and immediately post-mortem from dogs, rabbits, guinea pigs, rats and mice. The differences between our results and previous reports of considerably lower activities for structural enzymes (e. g. creatine kinase) and for enzymes partly of mitochondrial origin (e. g. glutamate dehydrogenase, aspartate aminotransferase, malate dehydrogenase), is attributed to our use of a detergent extraction technique. The superiority of the detergent technique with regard to enzyme yield is exemplified by a comparison of various methods of extraction in rat liver, heart and skeletal muscle. Use of standardized assays allows a qualitative inter-species comparison of results. The influence of autolysis on catalytic aetivity of human autopsies is considered of minor importance. Katalytische Enzymaktivitätskonzentration in Geweben von