Effect of trauma on rat serum proteolytic activity

¹ Department of Physiology, Tulane University Medical School, New Orleans, Louisiana

The effect of Noble-Collip drum trauma on serum proteolytic activity of normal and trauma-resistant rats has been investigated. Rats were subjected to a range of 0–480 Noble-Collip drum revolutions (40 rev/min). Rat serum samples from arterial blood were assayed in terms of their ability to lyse casein-I¹³¹. This analysis reflected serum proteolytic enzyme (plasmin) concentration. Intensive trauma (240 revolutions and above) produced statistically significant increases in serum proteolytic activity in nonadapted and trauma-resistant rats. The level of serum proteolytic activity for both rat groups rose progressively with each increase in trauma dose. In this drumming range, (240–480 revolutions) the mean serum proteolytic activity of the nonadapted rats was consistently higher than the corresponding mean value for trauma-resistant rats at each trauma dose. It was concluded that the ability of rats to limit the production of serum proteolytic activity in response to trauma may be associated with their resistance to trauma.