The changes of blood chemistry immediately after partial nephrectomy in clinical and canine cases were searched for by means of the measurements of non-protein nitrogen, urea nitrogen, creatinin, inorganic phosphor, plasma protein, and Na, Cl, and K as representative of electrolytes, and the following conclusions were obtained.
1) In cases with another healthy kidney, hardly any notable change of blood chemistry is noticed immediately after the operation except a temporary azotemia similar to what is observed after the usual nephrectomy, because the healthy kidney functions in complete compensation.
2) In cases with only one kidney, on the contrary, severe azotemia accompanied with oliguria occurs immediately after the operation. But this change is also temporary and returns nearly to normal range after a week.
3) In clinical cases with only one kidney, when the renal pedicle vessels are treated with digital pressing, oliguria and azotemia after the operation are of lighter degree than when treated with a clamp. In canine cases, however, any appreciable difference is not found between the postoperative renal functions after two treatments.
4) From the changes of blood chemistry mentioned above it necessarily follows that while the partial nephrectomy is safe in patients with another healthy kidney, it causes a temporary crisis immediately after it in those with only one kidney, which demands a careful postoperative observation: consequently, in the latter the renal pedicle must be treated not with a clamp but with digital pressing, in order to avoid its impairment as much as possible.

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In the course of histochemical studies of testis, it was noticed that the spermatozoa stains metachromatically with toluidine blue in certain phase of maturation. In the previous report it was shown that this metachromasia is not due to mucopolysaccharide but to nucleic acid, espicially to desoxyribonucleic acid. In view of the fact that such observation is rare and that DNA stains usually orthochromatically, detailed work was planned to exclude other sources of metachromatic staining.
1. Metachromasia due to hexametaphosphate
Hexametaphosphate is a known metachromatic substance, the presence of which in mammalian cells has not been shown. As a typical example of metachromasia due to hexametaphosphate, baker's yeast was chosen and comparative study was made with various extraction procedure. The metachromasia of yeast cells is more resistent to extraction with trichloracetic acid while less so to N HCl, alkali and perchloric acid than the metachromasia of the spermatozoa.
2). Metachromasia due to lipids
The tissue in this experiment having been fixed in absolute alkohol for 24 hours. lipids are expected to be lost during fixation. However, sudan black and acid hematin stain revealed small amount of phosphatid in the head of spermatozoa. Further extraction of the sections with fat solvents failed to affect the metachromatic staining of the spermatozoa expect for the extraction with acetone for 24 hours at 60°C. In the last mentioned case, however, affinity of the spermatozoa to methylgreen is lost, indicating that the loss of metachromasia is rather due to the depolymerization of DNA.
3, Metachromasia due to nucleic acid
The metachromasia of sperm head is unaffected by digestion with ribonuclease. Extraction procedure resulting in the loss or diminuation of metachromasia invariably resulted in the loss of affinity to methylgreen. This is a strong evidence for our hypothesis that the metachromasia of sperm head is due to the presence of highly polymerized DNA. Further evidence is afforded by the fact that digestion with streptococcal desoxyribonuclease also decreased metachromasia.
4. The loss of metachromasia and decrease in basophilia of the spermatozoa in later stage of maturation.
Free spermatozoa as well as that in the epididymis not only fails to stain metachromatically but its affinity to basic dyes is greatly diminished. Peptic digestion increased basophilia of this spermatozoa and treatment with baryte water produced metachromasy of all cellular nuclei.
This means that the removal of basic proteins combined with nucleic acid results in the increase of basophilia and sometimes in metachromatic staining. This hypothesis seems to be more plausible than the theory of chromophobe membrane formation of Ohno and Takamine. From above it is surmised that the metachromasia of sperm head is due to the presence of highly polymerized DNA. Degradation of DNA, as in artificial extraction procedure as well as increased binding with basic protein as in normal maturation course resulted in the loss of metachromasia and decrease in basophilia.
The significance of this phenomenon in the physiology of spermatogenesis is to be further investigated.

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