Hydrogen Ion Concentration in Exudates of Pneumococcus Infection

Abstract

Lord (1, 2) has reported t h a t exudates of pneumococcus infection show hydrogen ion concentrations greater than the blood serum by comparative measurement. With the dialysis method he'was usually able to demonstrate acidity of marked degree in pneumonic sputum, empyema pus, and in exudates taken at autopsy from the solidified lungs of fatal cases of lobar pneumonia and from those of dogs with experimental pneumococcus pneumonia. In confirmation of Lord's observations, Takahashi (3) showed with electrometric methods that in pneumococcus empyema, the hydrogen ion concentration of the pus becomes progressivel)r increased from approximately pH 7.00 at the onset, to values as great as pH 5.71 in the later stages. Takahashi found in addition that the empyema pus contained only 0.05 to 0.02 per cent of sugar.Physicochemical changes in inflammation were first" described by Opie (4) who titrated a decrease in alkalinity of exudates from the pleural cavities of dogs previously injected with irritants. Lord (1, 2), Koldajew (5), Golinow (6), and Menkln (7) have with different methods found acidity in exudates from infections due to a variety of bacteria. By further studies of inflammation, Kempner (8) has shown that in the fluid of cantharides skin blisters, carbonic and lactic acids become increased in concentration with the aggregation of leucocytes, while the base and sugar are proportionately diminished in comparison with the blood. Light from another angle has been thrown upon the origin of these physicochemical changes by Menkin (9) and others. From the injection of dyes, the latter workers have adduced evidence to indicate that in focal inflammation, capillary permeability is increased, whereas diffusion from the lesion into the surrounding tissues and blood stream is reduced by the coagulation of fibrin and plasma in the capillaries and lymphatics. Thus, it appears that localized inflammation generally is characterized by an accumulation of acids with a corresponding depletion of base and 659 on

Acidic pH enables caeruloplasmin to catalyse the modification of low‐density lipoprotein

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