The History of Dextran

The term dextran has been applied to carbohydrate slimes originating from sugar sirups, fermenting vegetables and dairy products. 

Attention was first directed toward the dextrans about the middle of the last century as these slimes were at times a serious problem in the wine and beet sugar industries. In the latter, jelly-like masses blocked the filters and interfered with the refining processes by retarding crystallization. Dextran, at various times, was regarded as a protoplasmic constituent of the beet cell, a product of sucrose fermentation, and as cellulose produced by fermentation. The empirical formula, (C HioOs)n, for dextran was obtained at an early date (about 1875) on hydrolysis, the substance was found to yield only D-glucose. A tribenzoate and a triacetate of dextran were prepared by Daumichen.  

Tarr and Hibbert determined the optimal conditions for the preparation of dextran. Sucrose was found to be the only suitable carbohydrate substrate, although some strains produced a small amount of dextran from D-glucose. The formation of dextran from D-glucose had been observed occasionally by earlier workers, but such formation is of somewhat transient character, occurring only when the cultures are very active with respect to the formation of polysaccharides from sucrose. The nutrient solution (pH 8.0) used by Tarr and Hibbert for dextran 

The following substances have been added to culture media to increase the yields of dextran raw beet sugar or molasses, commercial maple sirup, yeast extract, magnesium and ammonium sulfates, tomato juice, - calcium carbonate, and a water extract of waste sugarrefining charcoal (probably containing materials related to the vitamin B complex),  

Dextran is probably identical with the capsular carbohydrate of Leuconostoc, but capsules have not always been observed, even with Leuconostoc organisms which actively produced dextran. -  

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Multivariate analysis showed four independent susceptibility factors the administration of gelatins (OR = 4.81), the administration of dextrans (OR = 3.83), a history of drug allergy (OR = 3.16), and being male (OR = 1.98). 

Contraindications Active internal bleeding, arteriovenous malformation or aneurysm, cerebrovascular accident (CVA) with residual neurologic defect, history of CVA (within the past 2 yr) or oral anticoagulant use within the past 7 days unless PT is less than 1.2 X control, history of vasculitis, hypersensitivity to murine proteins, intracranial neoplasm, prior IV dextran use before or during percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA), recent surgery or trauma (within the past 6 wk), recent (within the past 6 wk or less) GI or GU bleeding, thrombocytopenia (less than 100,000 cells/pl), and severe uncontrolled hypertension... 

Owing to the risk of a hypersensitivity reaction, a small test dose of iron dextran should always be given before full intramuscular or intravenous doses are given. Patients with a strong history of allergy and patients who have previously received parenteral iron are more likely to have hypersensitivity reactions following treatment with parenteral iron dextran. 

Adult respiratory distress syndrome occurred after the intravenous infusion of dextran 40 in a 30-year-old woman, a smoker with a history of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, who had sustained an acute inferior myocardial infarction the dextran was given in... 

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