Pathological features of glutaminase toxicity.

In an investigation of the toxicity of the anti-tumour enzyme glutaminase Rhesus monkeys, marmosets, rabbits and mice were given various doses of chemically modified glutaminase parenterally. The enzyme induced diarrhoea and dysentery and at all but the lowest doses caused illness which was fatal within 10 days. Pathological lesions produced were hepatic lipidosis and glycogen accumulation, and, in the primates, acute necrotizing colitis.