The mechanism of renal glomerular capillary retention of carbon in disseminated intravascular coagulation.

In rabbits, when renal glomerular capillary thrombosis was induced by an infusion of thrombin, injected colloidal carbon particles localized within glomeruli. When administered after the thrombin had been infused, carbon was attached to the surface of fibrin deposits. Carbon also attached to platelets within capillaries containing fibrin, but not to leukocytes or endothelial cells. If administered simultaneously with thrombin, the carbon was incorporated into the developing mass of fibrin. These observations demonstrate that disseminated intravascular coagulation leads to the deposition of colloidal materials from the circulating blood in regions remote from reticuloendothelial organs, and illustrate a nonimmunologic mechanism whereby foreign particles and abnormal proteins might be trapped within the renal microcirculation.