This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Hoagland, M. B. Articles by Hood, M. B. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Hoagland, M. B. Articles by Hood, M. B.

Beryllium and Growth

I. Beryllium-induced Osteogenic Sarcomata^*

(From the Medical Laboratories of the Collis P. Huntington Memorial Hospital of Harvard University, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts)

1. Twenty-four rabbits were injected with insoluble beryllium compounds, and seven animals developed osteogenic sarcomas in from 11 to 24 months after injection. These tumors were highly malignant and metastasized rapidly. Seven other injected rabbits—apparently dying of unrelated causes—were found to have remarkably fibrotic and contracted livers.

2. All attempts to transplant these tumors met with failure.

3. The serum alkaline phosphatase activity rose rapidly, paralleling the spread of the tumor throughout the body, and the activity of this enzyme in the tumor tissue itself was extremely high. Magnesium was found to activate, and beryllium to inhibit, the phosphatase associated with the sarcoma in the same manner that these metals affect normal alkaline phosphatase.

4. The importance of an extremely malignant sarcoma produced by a simple metal oxide, in the light of the known effects of beryllium on certain enzyme systems, is discussed.

^* This is publication No. 704 of the Cancer Commission of Harvard University. This work was done under U.S. Atomic Energy Commission Contract AT(30-1)609 and, in part, under U.S. Navy Contract N5 ori-76.

Received 5/22/50.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				I. H. LEOPOLD PHARMACOLOGY AND TOXICOLOGY Arch Ophthalmol, August 1, 1951; 46(2): 159 - 224. [PDF]