THE EFFECTS OF SINGLE INJECTIONS OF SOLUBLE COMPONENTS OF "FUSOSPIROCHETAL" MATERIALS IN EXPERIMENTAL ANIMALS

¹ Division of Dental Research, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario

Experimental animals were inoculated with filtrates of human gingival scrapings, filtrates of experimental fusospirochetal guinea pig exudate or supernatant fluid from centrifuged guinea pig fusospirochetal exudate. Injections were subgingival in cats, subcutaneous or intraperitoneal in guinea pigs, intravenous in rabbits, and intraperitoneal in rats.

No recognizable lesion attributable to toxicity of the inoculum was found in any of the 40 animals used in this study. The results of the study confirm those of Rosebury, Clark, Macdonald, and O'Connell¹⁶ and conflict with those of Graham.⁸ An explanation for the discrepancy is suggested.

Using single inoculations of a variety of animals by several routes, soluble toxic substances were not demonstrated in either suspensions of scrapings from periodontal disease in human beings or guinea pig fusospirochetal exudate.