Abstract
Shwartzman reaction in pregnant animals was invited by single injection of endotoxin without any preparatory procedure. This specific phenomena had been explained by hypercoagulability of blood during pregnancy, which produced intravascular fibrin deposition. In this paper, it was dealt with the possible role of plasmin system in this specific type of Shwartzman reaction during pregnancy.
In human subject, total plasmin (caseinolytic and fibrinolytic activities of SK-euglobulin) and spontaneous proteolytic activities of euglobulin fracti onwere elevated as the stages of pregnancy advanced. The whole blood or plasma, however, showed suppression of fibrinolytic which might be caused by predominat antiplasmin level during pregnancy. A marked elevation of fibrinolytic was found in blood samples from vasa efferentia of the non-pregnant uterus, while no fibrinolytic activity was proved in blood from the pregnant uterus. Plasminogen activator extracted from kidneys of pregnant rat, guinea pig and rabbit had significantly lower activity than the non-pregnant controls.
The results described above seemed to suggest that in pregnant state, Shwartzman reaction was easily induced by not only hypercoagulability but also lowered fibrinolytic activity, depositing fibrin and remaining it in the vessels.
