Lobsters, lymph and histamine-liberation / by W.D.M. Paton.

  • William Paton
Date:
1959
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Lobsters, lymph and histamine-liberation / by W.D.M. Paton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    not seem to be significant [Dale and Richards^ 1927). Some evidence pointing to an increase in the histamine content of whole blood in man has been advanced; but it is difficult to infer from this whether plasma histamine was raised, or a redistribution of histamine-con¬ taining cells in the blood took place. Mongar and Whelan (1953) failed to obtain evidence for such release following infusion of adrenaline into the human forearm. A suggestive early observation was that by Bainbridge and Trevan (1917), who found that adrenaline intraportally in the dog produced a shock-like state with engorge¬ ment of the liver and a rise of portal venous pressure, together with an increase in thoracic lymph flow. It seemed worth while to test this point further, and two ex¬ ploratory experiments were made. In the first, Bainbridge and TrevarH^ experiment was repeated. In a dog under chloralose- urethane anaesthesia, in which thoracic lymph flow and blood pressure were recorded, adrenaline 1 mg. was injected intraportally. This led to a three or four-fold increase in lymph flow (0.12 cc. /min. to 0.55 cc./min., and 0.11 cc./min. to 0.36 cc./min. in a second test), and a vigorous rise in blood pressure for 1-2 minutes followed by a fall, normal pressure being restored in 5-6 minutes. No rise in plasma histamine could be detected, and there were no signs of peripheral circulatory shock. The only suggestive observation was that the lymph became less coagulable. Before the adrenaline in¬ jection, it clotted in less than 30 minutes. Three minutes after the injection clotting took 1 hr. 40 min., and a sample 9 minutes later was unclotted in 3^ hours. Later samples clotted in 60 min. and 50 min. The blood coagulation time (which can be distinctly pro¬ longed by peptone and other histamine-liberators) was hardly affected, although at the peak of the effect on the lymph coagulation time, blood clotted in 11 minutes compared to the normal 3-4 minutes. These results, however, could be attributed as readily to the effect of ischemia on the dog liver and its mast cells as to specific histamine release. It seemed, therefore, that adrenaline had, at most, a very limi¬ ted ability to mobilize histamine or (in the dog) heparin, and that a more sensitive test was required. Accordingly, on the perfused skin preparation, two experiments were made, with 100 /^g. adrena¬ line and 1 mg. noradrenaline respectively given into the arterial perfusion cannula. Both injections produced very severe vasoconstric¬ tion. The effluent was assayed for histamine against standard hista-
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