Clinical and Experimental Studies on the Characteristics of Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura Part 2 The Influence of the Serum of Guinea Pigs with Experimental Thrombocytopenia on the Megakaryocyte Function

With a view to study the causative factor of the experimental thrombocytopenia induced in guinea pigs by injecting anti-platelet serum into guinea pigs, the author performed the bone-marrow tissue culture of normal guinea pigs in the serum of guinea pigs with this experimental thrombocytopenia by means of the simple method of bone-marrow tissue culture, and observed the number and functions of megakaryocytes as well as the relative tissue growth rate and the wandering velocity of neutrophils. The number of megakaryocytes appearing in the tissue growth area showed no significant difference from that of the bone-marrow tissue culture in the serum of normal guinea pigs, the control, but the megakaryocyte function was markedly diminished as compared with the control, especially after 24 hours' culture no such megakaryocytes as showing the separation of platelets could at all be observed and also a marked degenerative picture was observed. The relative tissue growth rate was somewhat decreased, and the wandering velocity of neutrophils showed no significant difference from that of the control. From these findings it has become clear that in the serum of guinea pigs with experimental thrombocytopenia there exists a factor acting directly on megakarxocytes as to suppress the separation of platelets