Plasma proteins in canine gastric lymph.

Because it has not been possible to collect gastric lymph by cannulation of lymph vessels, the methods of renal micropuncture were adapted to collection and analysis of 0.5- to 3-mu samples obtained by puncturing lymph vessels on or immediately adjacent to the ventral surface of the dog's stomach. Samples of gastric lymph collected immediately after completion of surgical exposure of the stomach were subjected to acrylamide gel electrophoresis, and they were found to show all the protein bands exhibited by simultaneously collected samples of plasma. Quantitative analysis of similar samples by cellulose acetate electrophoresis gave the following ratios of protein concentration in gastric lymph to plasma: total protein, 0.51; albumin, 0.68; total globulins, 0.42; alpha1-globulin, 0.49; alpha2-globulin, 0.62; beta-globulin, 0.35; fibrinogen, 0.39; and gamma-globulin, 0.46. When samples were collected over 4 hr the concentrations of all proteins in lymph increased, and an argument is presented that this was not the result of increasing small pore size as the result of injury. When the mucosa was irrigated with solutions of dithiothreitol, a substance causing plasma shedding, the concentrations of proteins in gastric lymph over a 4-hr period were similar to those found in control experiments. Gastric lymph mixed with 100 mN HCl was found to have proteolytic activity.