Abstract
We have seen 15 patients who developed serum hepatitis 20 to 115 days after blood transfusions in our clinic from winter, 1954, to spring, 1955.
Diagnosis in most of these cases were confirmed by biopsies of the liver. I have attempted to produce hepatitis by inoculating embryonated eggs and young mice the materials (whole blood and a small piece of liver tissue obtained by biopsy) from the patients.
1) The materials were injected into embryonated eggs and repeated in subsequent egg-to-egg transfers. Although the embryonal livers were supposed to be affected, from histological findings and from the mortality rate, there were no specific changes.
2) The materials were injected into the abdominal cavities of young mice (5 to 10 g in weight), and repeated in subsequent mouse-to-mouse transfers by injecting the liver-emulsions of the mice which had succumbed 5 to 6 days later. In this experiment I had some mice dying after a moree or less definite period and histogical picture of the liver was indicative of hepatitis.
However, it could not be stated that the serum hepatitis virus was transmissible to young mice, solely one the basis of the results of these experiments.
