Experimental polymer storage disease in rabbits. An approach to the histogenesis of sphingolipidoses.

Water-soluble polymer compound, polyvinyl alcohol(PVA), and water-insoluble polymer compounds, polyvinyl acetate (PVAc) and polystylol (PS), were administered in 297 rabbits. When high polymerized PVA, PVAc or PS were continuously injected intravenously for a long period of time, lesions resembled to those of Gaucher and Niemann-Pick diseases were developed. From these experimental results, pathological development of various sphingolipidoses found in the human body was discussed and pathological findings were analysed polymer-chemically from the chemical properties of the substances stored.