Rabbits were subjected to local acute cold injury by freezing one leg for ten minutes. The experiment was divided into five parts, with a separate group of rabbits being tested under each of the following series:
( 1) Cold injury and gradual rewarming, (2) Cold injury and rapid rewarming, (3) Inositol treatment, cold injury, and gradual rewarming, (4) Inositol treatment, cold injury, and rapid rewarming, (5) Inositol treatment alone.
Observations indicated that the two groups treated with inositol prior to cold injury developed less edema than the two comparable groups subjected to cold injury without inositol. Electrophoretic studies of serum protein distribution were performed; the two groups not treated with inositol, and the group treated with inositol alone, showed no significant changes in serum protein distribution subsequent to the experimental conditions. Serum protein distributions in the two groups which had received inositol prior to cold injury revealed a significant decrease in serum albumin in both groups, with an increase in either alpha, beta or gamma globulin. It is suggested that inositol may affect the capillary walls so that they are less permeable to alpha, beta and gamma globulins under the conditions of cold injury.