[The possible pathways for the formation of a pool of an acid-soluble blood plasma fraction in patients with diffuse suppurative peritonitis].

In patients with diffuse purulent peritonitis, the total pool of an acid-soluble blood plasma fraction (ABPF) considerably increases as compared to that in normals (donors). The present paper is concerned with the role of proteolytic activity and lysis of bacterial cells and cells of different human tissues in the formation of the ABPF in patients with peritonitis. For this purpose the normals' blood and its separate components were treated with various enzymes (trypsin, pronase, chemotrypsin, papain, elastase, alpha-amylase) to measure the ABPF. The pattern of changes detectable on such a treatment was compared with the tendency of changes seen in patients with peritonitis. Measurements were also made of acid-soluble fractions in suspensions of bacterial cells and cells of the pancreas, liver and heart muscle tissue of man. It has been found that on proteolysis of plasma proteins and membrane proteins of blood cells there form products contained by the ABPF. Such products formed in the greatest amount as a result of treatment with pronase. Products of the lysis of bacterial cells may be also contained by the ABPF of peritonitis patients. The possibility of detecting proteolytic degradation and cellular disintegration according to the spectral characteristics of separate fractions of the ABPF is discussed.