THE PURPOSE of this paper is to establish further the usefulness of hyaluronidase, a relatively new agent in facilitating administration of fluids in pediatric practice, and to present results of numerous studies on toxicity performed to insure the relative safety of alidase,®1 the commercial hyaluronidase product used in this clinical investigation.
Duran-Reynals2 and McClean3 were the first to note a spreading factor, hyaluronidase, present in testicular extract aiding spread of subcutaneously injected dye and fluid. This factor has since been obtained from many sources, including snake venom, leech, spider and bee extract, spermatozoa, some carcinomas and many bacteria. Chain and Duthie4 identified the spreading factor as a mucolytic enzyme which acts on hyaluronic acid,5 a mucopolysaccharide which in its native form is a gel or mucin clot not bound to protein.
By use of histochemical methods such as metachromic reactions of certain dyes, acid mucopolysaccharides