Evening star., 1932-06-06
SC|ENT|STSPROBE
FUNCTION Of LIVER
Experiments at Georgetown
| May Have Far-Reaching
Effect in Medicine.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

Discoveries which may have far
reaching implications in medicine are
being made in the physiological labora-
tories of the Georgetown University
Medical School as result of new
surgical technique perfected there by
which a dogs liver can be removed en-
tirely within a single short operation
and the animal kept alive for approXi-
mately 20 hours or more.
Observations of the behavior of the
iverless dogs, according to DR.. j. Mark
owitz. professor of physiology, who with
his colleagues devised the technique,
are beginning to throw light on some
obscure and often fatal pathological
conditions which have been noted in
human beings besides making possible
rigidly controlled determinations of the
physiological functions of this organ.
Since an animal can live for ap-
proximately only day without liver,
DR.. Markowitz says. it is becoming in
important organ in the body SO far as
basic physiological functioning is con-
cerned.
Changes Noted.
In the past it has been possible to
remove livers and keep the animals
alive, but only by two and three stage
operations extending over weeks during
which the whole physiological set-up
may have been so profoundly altered as
to invalidate the findings. In the
Georgetown experiments about half an
hour elapses between the moment the
dog Is etherized and the time the last
stitches are taken in the wound. So
the changes that take place must be due
almost entirely to the absence Of the
liver.
Here are some of the changes noted
The blood sugar of the animal-the
Form in which food is utilized as q
source of energy for the muscles and as
q fuel to maintain the heat of the body
falls quickly to practically zero. This,
1t is known, is manufactured in the
liver. 1t is the one supreme vital func-
ton of the organ. Ordinarily, ef
course, the animal would die immedi-
etely. 1t is kept alive, however. by in
jecting appropriate amounts of sugar
solution into its blood stream.
Pulse Rate Rises.
The heart rate increases rapidly until,
Gust before death, it may be approXi-
mately three times normal. The same
phenomenon has been reported by
physicians for human beings suffering
from certain pathological conditions of
the liver. The reason is unknown. For
the first time the change can be traced
directly to the liver.
The animals blood loses the capacity
Of clothing Eventually the creature
would bleed to death. The liver is
fibrinogen, the chemical substance
which causes blood to clot, is manu-
factured.
The sensitivity to various poisons is
greatly increased. The liver evidently
creates 6etoXicating agents to Offset the
effects of many poisonS. Experiments
have been conducted with strychnine
and nicotine. 1t is probable that the
liver makes possible the tolerance Of
the human system to the minute
amounts OF the deadly nicotine obtained
from the use of tobacco. Men without
livers might die from the effects of
single cigar.
Poisons Pile Up.
Various poisonous products of meta
bolism, such as uric acid, pile up in the
blood stream.
Urea disappears The dog is greatly
benefited by injections of this sub
stance.
The parathyroid hormone, the secre-
ton of the parathyroid glands which
takes calcium out of the bones and adds
1t to the blood. has the same effect
with or without the liver. This was
one Of the things the Georgetown group
was specially anxious to determine.
Lack of this hormone results in fatal
eetanic convulsions.
The liverleSS dogs often show the
same kind of convulsionS which some
times prove fatal to women during
pregnancy and the cause of which never
has been determined.
Intestine Affected.
The dogs intestine starts to digest
Itself. Whatever principles in the blood
stream which make it possible for the
stomach juices to digest food such as
meat without digesting the walls of the
stomach itself. which have the same
chemical makeup, apparently are
greatly reduced
The liverlesS animal lives for ap-
proximately 20 hours and then dies.
1t may live twice as long. Nothing can
save 1t. If the reason for its death can
be determined an important principle
OF life itself will have been uncovered
A likely clue. the Georgetown group
believes, is in the enormously increased
heart rate. The heart reaches its abso-
lutte limit beyond which it can beat no
faster. But something is pushing it
continuously to beat faster. At criti-
cal point it fails and the dog dies.
Brake" on Heart.
This, in turn, may be due to the
accumulation in the blood Of heart
Rccelerating substances which ordinarily
are destroyed or greatly reduced by the
liver There is even the possibility that
the liver may manufacture substance
which normally inhibits the heart beat
so that the organ is kept within the
limits Of its mechanical endurance.
A characteristic result of liver re-
moval Is the development in the dog of
the jaundiced condition similar to that
which affects human beings whose livers
are not functioning properly.
Up to the present the liver has been
one of the most difficult organs to study
by rigidly controlled experiment because
Of the difficulty of removing it without
causing death from bleeding Great
streams of blood pass through it. In
the past it has been possible to divert
these streams by several operations
weeks apart. DR.. Markowitz himself
while associated with the Mayo clinic
at Rochester, Mimi, devised one OF
these procedures by which the liver
could be removed in two operations
The present surgical procedure involves
confining the blood flow in glass tube
which is passed through the liver in
the first stage of the operation. An eek
flstula is then performed. The whole
procedure calls for extremely exact
surgery.
Theory Developed.
Besides the practical results, DR.
Markowitz explained there are some
far-reaching philosophical implications
to be drawn from the liver operations.
Animal life has evolved from a single
cell This single cell could perform all
the necessary functions of living 1t was
all organs in one
Then other cells were added and
more complex organisms built up.
Specialization of function was in
troduced. Some cells became ex-
clusivelu hlood cells soma axcl,1eiuolr