II. HEMOGLOBIN AND BILE PIGMENT OVERPRODUCTION IN THE SPLENECTOMIZED BILE FISTULA DOG

Abstract

Blood destruction associated with Bartonella or with a drug (hydrazine) in bile fistula dogs yields a large pigment excess. These dogs form large amounts of new hemoglobin and bile pigment on a diet which permits of but little new hemoglobin production in standard anemic dogs. When hemoglobin formation and hemoglobin destruction are occurring rapidly and simultaneously, estimations of the percentage of circulating hemoglobin alone, though showing the eventual total increase or decrease of this substance, do not permit one to determine the actual amounts formed or destroyed. It is suggested that the body can produce readily a large amount of the pyrrol aggregate (four pyrrol rings) which may go to form new hemoglobin. At the same time the globin is probably saved from destroyed red cells and turned over into new hemoglobin for new red cells. It is certain that globin may be a determining factor under certain circumstances in the construction of new hemoglobin for new red cells. Our knowledge about the construction and internal metabolism of globin is extraordinarily limited.