Experimental Studies on Japanese B Encephalitis with the Radioactive P(32) Part 3 Investigation Of Nucleic Acid Metabolism in the Organs, especially in Brain And Liver, of Mice Inoculated Intraperitoneally with Japanese B Encephalitis Virus from the Viewpoint of the Specific

Nucleic acid metabolism in brain and liver, which had been formerly investigated by the measurement of P(32) activity, was examined from the viewpoint of the specific activity of P(32) in order to make clear the nucleic acid metabolism in its progressive form. As in my last experiment, Japanese B Encephalitis Virus was intraperitoneally inoculated. P(32) was intraperitoneally injected into the mice respectively 48 and 120 hours after they were inoculated with the virus, and after 6 and 24 hours, the nucleic acid metabolism in brain and liver was observed from the point of view of the P(32) specific activity. As the control objects, the healthy mice injected intraperitoneally with P(32) were used. An increase of the P(32) specific activity in liver was recognized during the incubation period, especially in its earlier stage. This fact, as Osada once reported, seems to imply that rapid metabolic changes of the nucleic acid in liver take place during the incubation period or the so-called visceral phase of Japanese B Encephalitis. The P(32) specific activity in liver at the later stage of infection decreases in spite of the increase of nucleic acid amount; and the ups and downs in nucleic acid amount does not always go parallel with the P(32) specific activity.