The Journal of Experimental Medicine
MBL International Tel: 800.200.5459 CLICK HERE
  Home | Help | Feedback | Subscriptions | Archive | Search | Table of Contents

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Services
Right arrow Email this article
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new content in the JEM
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Acheson, G. H.
Right arrow Articles by Schoenbach, E. B.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Acheson, G. H.
Right arrow Articles by Schoenbach, E. B.
Social Bookmarking
 Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?
The Journal of Experimental Medicine, Vol 75, 465-480, Copyright, 1942, by The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research New York


ARTICLE

THE LOCALIZED ACTION ON THE SPINAL CORD OF INTRAMUSCULARLY INJECTED TETANUS TOXIN

George H. Acheson M.D.1, Oscar D. Ratnoff M.D.1, and Emanuel B. Schoenbach M.D.1

1 From the Departments of Physiology and of Bacteriology and Immunology, Harvard Medical School, Boston

Local tetanus limited to one leg was studied in cats after intramuscular injection of tetanus toxin.

1. The electric and mechanical response of the affected muscle after a single stimulus to the intact sensory-motor nerve is greater in amplitude and duration than the response of the corresponding muscle of the unaffected leg (Fig. 1).

2. This augmented response of the muscle is associated with an augmented response arising from the ipsilateral portion of the spinal cord, while the contralateral part of the cord is unaffected, as demonstrated by electrographic records from the motor nerves (Figs. 2 to 5).

3. The augmented muscular response is abolished when the reflex arc is broken, but the augmented response in the spinal cord is independent of changes in the muscle, the neuromuscular junction, the afferent and efferent peripheral nerves, and the dorsal root ganglia.

4. The augmented spinal response develops in the absence of the peripheral signs of local tetanus. Hence the pathogenesis of the altered state in the spinal cord is independent of the peripheral effects of the toxin.

5. In local tetanus, therefore, the toxin injected intramuscularly acts selectively upon the segments of the spinal cord which supply the innervation of the injected area.

6. The augmented spinal response may be prevented by section of the nerve trunks supplying the area of injection prior to the injection of the toxin.

7. It is concluded that in local tetanus the toxin is carried to the spinal cord by way of peripheral nerves.

Submitted on January 9, 1942


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?




  Home | Help | Feedback | Subscriptions | Archive | Search
TABLE OF CONTENTS