Evening star., 1937-04-25
THROMB0S|SCURB
INDICATED |NDRUC
Co-DIscoverer of InsuIin
Finds Heparin May BaIk
Blood CIots.
BY HOWARD w. BLAKESLEr
Associated Press Science Editor

fANP"A "'Aoh eiAat gives promise OF
being a preventive of thrombosis, the
formation Of blood clots, which is
one OF the highly fatal and COM
pletely unconquered diseases.
One hundred human beings already
have been treated. But this num-
Der is considered too small to ad-
vance the discovery out Of the sex
perimental medicine" stage, DR.. Best
told the Federation Of American So
cieties for Experimental Biology.
The new remedy is a purified form
OF heparin, substance manufactured
by the liver in men and animals.
1t tends TO prevent clothing of blood.
DR.. Best has purified the ordinary
form, with the result its potency is
increased 800 to TOO times.
Thrombosis Affects All Ages.
Thrombosis takes many forms and
strikes down persons OF all ages. In
one form, coronary thrombosis. it
takes lives of many men of the execu-
tive type while they are apparently
still in their prime
In the brain the clots result in
what is popularly called a stroke"
with usually fatal results. In limbs
they may not be fatal, but result in
weeks Of illness and often In amputa-
ton.
Heparin does not dissolve clots after
they have formed. But it is an ef-
fective preventive. This gives it i'm
mediate possibilities, because a num-
Der OF forms of thrombosis can be
predicted by physicians.
DR.. Best described today for the
flrst time the result of five years Of
experiments by himself and co-work-
ers OF the University Of Toronto School
of Hygiene, Arthur Charles and Camp
bell Cowan. They first tried the ordi-
nary, crude form Of heparin on dogs
and other laboratory animals. 1t was
injected simultaneously. There was
little effect.
Purified Heparin Worked.
Next the powerful new purified
heparln was produced. 1t was ad-
mlnBtered in the same way. A single
injection served to prevent the for
nation Of clots in a dogs blood for
40 hours.
Next animals were given thrombosis,
experimentally. When heparin was
injected it prevented this type of
thrombosis. Combining the heparin
with bendixine made the remedy more
effective.
The new heparin has no bad ef-
fects on human beings, but the con-
dltlons under which it can be used
safely must still be worked out.
Other Reports Made.
A pneumonia treatment that cut
the death rate three-ouarters, an ex-
tract Of white blood cells from dogs
that saved otherwise fatal cases of
perltonitis, and finding the nerves that
control the making of bile also were
reported yesterday.
The pneumonia treatment covered
1,5o0 cases Of all types at all ages at
the Louisiana State University Med
lcal Center, New Orleans. 1t was
reported to the Federation Of Ameri-
can Societies for Experimental Biol.
ogy by Clyde Brooks, M. D.
One-half of the patients, he said,
received the standard pneumonia
treatments, the other half by injec-
ton OF a protein substance which,
Or. Brooks said, his medical friends
think ought not to work.
But, he said, the death rate of those
treated with the protein was 10 per
cent IN lobar pneumonia against 80
per cent for patients receiving all the
usual pneumonia remedies. The death
rate was 9 per cent in broncho.
pneumonia against 80 per cent. The
cases covered five years.
The medical name of the protein
is deutero proteose or secondary pro-
teose. 1t Is made from f1brin, the sub
stance which causes blood to clot.
White Blood Cells Extracted.
Bernhard Steinberg, M. D., of the
Toledo Hospital Toledo, Ohio, report
ed method, the first of its kind, Of
putting the white blood cells of one
animal to work in curing disease of
not only another animal but of q diff
ferent species, including human
being.
The white blood cells, leukocytes, are
the scaVengers in both men and ami
mails, their job being to destroy infec-
tions of all kinds.
Laboratory scientists have known for
some time that it is possible to extract
these living disease fighters from the
body, but DR.. Steinberg discovered a
method Of speeding up the extraction
by skiold. This gives him a large
number Of leukocytes which can be
transferred to the body of another ami
NAL or to human being while they
are still very much alive and active.
He used the leukocytes obtained
from one dog to cure peritonitis in
another dog
Vitamin B Work Described.
Vitamin B. the most complex men,
Der of the diet family, was held re-
sponsible for some forms of heart
disease in a report which closed a
three-day discussion of the wide
spread lack of this vitamin In Ameri-
can diet.
The story Of 80 men scarcely able to
walk on account Of heart trouble who
were able to go back to work after
several months of q diet rich in vita
min B was described by DR.. Barnett
Sure and DR.. W. A. Jones of the Uni
versity of Arkansas and the United
States Veterans Hospital, Fayette-
Vile.
These men, said DR.. Sure, were
given diets Of cereals containing wheat
embryo, yeast, and numerous fresh
vegetables all containing vitanin B.
and in addition a concentrate Of this
vitamin.
After an average stay Of ia days
each one Of these men hiked miles
from the veterans hospital to town
without serious heart difficulties. They
all returned to work. DR.. Sure said
that he does not believe lack Of vita
min B is direct cause Of heart trouble,
but, he said, American diet is made
quate in this vitamin.