Sensitivity of Mice to Histamine During Respiratory Infection by Hemophilus pertussis.

Abstract

Mice inoculated intranasally with a culture of H. pertussis developed lung infections from which more than half of the mice survived. The average time of death ranged from 16 to 23 days. They developed a high degree of sensitivity to histamine comparable to that induced by pertussis vaccine, but it was slower in developing and it persisted much longer. A high percentage of the mice that died from histamine shock showed gross lung lesions and H. pertussis was recovered from the lungs of the majority. Most of the mice that survived this infection were resistant to an intracerebral inoculation of H. pertussis.