GLYCEMIA AND CONSECUTIVE PASSIVE TRANSFERS OF AN ANAPHYLACTOID REACTION INDUCING FACTOR IN RATS

Abstract

Intravenous injection of a shock dose of dextran (12 mg/100 g body weight) into Sprague–Dawley rats sensitized 8 days previously (with 30 mg/rat intraperitoneally) caused, within 1 hour, an anaphylactoid reaction as well as the appearance in serum of an anaphylactoid reaction inducing factor that was shown to be different from the original dextran. Hypoglycemic rats (insulin–Zn, 2 units/100 g) produced enough of this factor to enable its passive transfer in serum (0.5 ml/100 g intravenously), at hourly intervals, through three consecutive groups of hypoglycemic rats, each time causing anaphylactoid reaction. Hyperglycemic rats (having received 8 millimoles D-glucose/100 g per os, or with alloxan diabetes) produced less of the factor, so that it could be transferred to only one group of hypoglycemic rats. Production of the factor, therefore, is inhibited in the presence of high blood sugars. When transferred to hyperglycemic rats the factor produced no anaphylactoid reaction, but on further transfer to hypoglycemic rats, it produced the reaction. Production of an anaphylactoid reaction by the factor is therefore reversibly inhibited in the presence of high blood sugars.