Ferritin and antiferritin serum treatment of dogs in irreversible hemorrhagic shock

¹ Department of Pathology, University of Illinois, College of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois

A classic explanation for the development of irreversibility of transfusion therapy in hemorrhagic shock has been the so-called ‘VDM’ theory, which postulates that ferritin (VDM) is released from the anoxic liver during shock and adversely affects the vasculature, leading to irreversibility. In the present experiment, several groups of dogs, subjected to standardized procedure for producing hemorrhagic shock, were treated with either antiferritin serum, purified ferritin, normal rabbit serum or saline. Neither vascular compensatory mechanisms nor survival rates were affected by any of the treatments. The experiment has thus failed to indicate that circulating ferritin is a major factor in the genesis of irreversible hemorrhagic shock, and it is concluded that ferritin is a concomitant and not a cause of irreversible hemorrhagic shock in dogs.