It seems to be clear that iso-agglutinins and iso-hæmolysins, that is
to say, serum reactions among the individuals of a species, are to be
found distributed widely through the animal kingdom. The phenomenon
is, however, weak in operation compared with that found among human
beings, and it is very much more difficult to demonstrate. The facts
have not been investigated for very many species of animals.
Some of the earliest attempts to investigate the distribution of
iso-agglutinins among animals were made by Hektoen in 1907. He tested
the blood of rabbits, guinea-pigs, dogs, horses, and cattle; his
results were negative in every case, but probably his technique was
imperfect or an insufficient number of animals was tested. Grouping
has been found among goats by Ehrlich. Ottenberg and others believe
that they have demonstrated the existence of three groups among
steers, and of four groups among rabbits. Von Dungern has shown
that there are four groups among dogs. Agglutination reactions were
found by Ingebrigtsen and by Ottenberg among cats, but they were
not constant, and it was not found possible to distinguish any
grouping. The same was found to be true of rats. I have not been
able to discover any record of research upon iso-agglutinins in
birds or reptiles. The phenomenon of blood groups has a possible
bearing on the success or failure of experimental transplantations
of tissue, whether healthy or diseased, from one animal to another
of the same species. From this point of view an investigation of
the blood reactions among mice was carried out by B. R. G. Russell
in the laboratories of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, but he
was unable to find any sort of grouping. Ingebrigtsen has made an
attempt to correlate the results of the transplantation of arteries
in cats with their serum reactions, but he was unable to do so. His
results were equally bad whether iso-agglutinins were present or
not. Nevertheless, it is highly probable that the success of tissue
transplantation in man will be found to be largely dependent upon
compatibility of blood groups in donor and recipient. The problem
is one that cannot easily be investigated by experiment on animals,
among which natural incompatibility is evidently much less well
marked than it is in man. A method of overcoming this unsuitability
is suggested by the experiments of Ottenberg and Thalimer. These
observers, as already mentioned, found that in cats iso-agglutinins
were present, though inconstant; on the other hand, iso-hæmolysins
were seldom if ever found in normal cats, though they often
appeared in the recipients of transfusions. Grafting experiments
might therefore be preceded by transfusions designed to stimulate
artificially incompatibility of the tissue fluids.
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