Experimental Study on the Anemia after Total Gastrectomy I. Report: On the Peripheral Blood Picture and Bone Marrow Picture

Many had been said, from olden times, on the relation between digestive organ (esp. stomach) and hematopoiesis, and it has been much clarified in appreciation of the discovery of liver therapy for pernicious anemia by Minot and Murphy (1926), the dissertation of the in-and extrinsic factors theory by Castle and Townsend (1929), and of the studies of many other authorities. The atrophy of the stomach is responsible for the occurrence of anemia and it has been reported that the microcytic or pernicious anemia had often been observed after total gastrectomy in man. But in the animal there were no report of cases of pernicious anemia after total gastrectomy. The author has performed the animal experiment in rats, after resecting the right portion of stomach as Jacobson etc. had done and also the left portion of the stomach. That has been resulted the lack of storage and stirring of diet. In these rats were observed the blood picture of peripheral and of bone marrow for 400 days after operation. Results obtained as follows: 1) Gastrectomized rats gain in weight little in general, and the one losing weight dies earlier. The ocular conjunctiva changes in white and glistening of hair will be lost a little. Activity will be minimized and they show a tendency to have loose bowels. 2) Hemoglobin decreases highly and rapidly in relativly early postoperative days and redcell count drops gradually. Color index decreases and immature red cells increase in number, but leucocytes show no marked differential abnormalities in spite of increasing in number. 3) Normoblasts, esp. basophilic and polychromatic, increase in the bone marrow but it is mostly microcytic showing hindrance on ripening of erythrocytes. The author summarizes that the agastric anemia in rats is hypochromic and microcytic in nature without no exceptions and shows iron deficiency anemia