MULTIPLE ENZYME CHANGES IN THE PLASMA OF NORMAL AND TUMOR-BEARING MICE FOLLOWING INFECTION WITH THE LACTIC DEHYDROGENASE AGENT

Within 72 hours after injection of the LDH agent into normal mice, five (LDH, ICDH, MDH, PHI, and GOT) out of the seven plasma enzymes studied were elevated. This elevation persisted for the duration of the experiment. Alkaline phosphatase and aldolase were not elevated. Plasma from mice bearing tumor SS-70429 and infected with the LDH agent showed 7 times more LDH, 8 times more ICDH, and 4 times more MDH activity than the plasma from mice with the same tumor but uninfected. The plasma aldolase activity from the infected tumor-bearing animal was approximately the same as that from the uninfected tumor-bearing animal. Somewhat similar results, but lower in magnitude, were found with mice bearing mammary carcinoma C(3)HBA. The early rise in plasma enzyme activity (LDH, MDH, ICDH) prior to the actual appearance of the tumor was shown to be due not to the tumor, but to the LDH agent. Uninfected tumor-bearing mice showed a late increase in plasma enzyme activity which appeared to be related to tumor growth. The findings reported above suggest that contamination with the LDH agent may have been responsible for much of the increased plasma enzyme activity previously attributed to the tumor.