STUDIES ON VITAL STAINING : IV. INDIA INK AND BRILLIANT VITAL RED. IMPORTANCE OF CONSIDERING LIVER EXCRETION IN THE STUDY OF "BLOCKADE OF THE RETICULO-ENDOTHELIAL SYSTEM"

When brilliant vital red is injected into the blood stream of dogs much of it is slowly taken up into numerous phagocytes scattered throughout the tissues ("reticulo-endothelial system" of Aschoff). The rate at which the dye leaves the blood stream is determined in large part by the action of these phagocytic cells, but the excretion of dye into the bile is also in part responsible for the loss of dye from the plasma. The injection of a small amount of India ink into the blood stream results in lowering the rate at which the dye disappears from circulation. The fact that much of the carbon of the ink is promptly taken up by the phagocytes would lead one to suspect that they were saturated with foreign materials, or "blocked" against the entrance of dye, but it is shown that the ink causes a remarkable inhibition of the excretion of dye into the bile, and this alone seems to account for the longer retention of dye in the blood stream. There is no evidence that any of the retention is due to defective activity on the part of the phagocytes. Thus, prolonged retention of foreign materials in the blood stream cannot be cited to prove "blockade of the reticulo-endothelial system" unless one can rule out such peculiar reactions on the part of excretory organs. It is felt that the literature of "blockade" should be studied with such sources of error in mind. Preliminary studies indicate that the suppression of dye excretion by the liver is not due to the carbon content of the ink. Studies of other components of the ink are now in progress.