Depletion of mono-amines in kidney, spleen and heart vessels in mice with experimental ascites.

Mice injected intraperitoneally with Ehrlich ascites carcinoma were killed after varying intervals 2 to 21 days after injection. Tissue specimens from the kidney, spleen and heart were examined histochemically for mono-amines in the adrenergic fibres and the noradrenaline content of the kidney was chemically determined. The mono-amine-indicating fluorescense was subjectively estimated as absent or faint in a greater number of slides, and correspondingly as clear in a smaller number of slides in the ascitic group than in the controls, the difference being highly significant. This applied to the adrenergic fibres of the blood vessels of the kidney, to the arterioles of the spleen and to the adrenergic fibres of the myocardium. A highly significant reduction in the chemically determined content of noradrenaline was found in the kidney of ascitic mice as compared with the controls.