THE BLOOD HISTAMINE DURING ANAPHYLACTIC SHOCK IN THE HORSE AND CALF

Abstract

This study was made to determine whether or not the liberation of histamine is a fundamental accompaniment of anaphylaxis. Animals were sensitized to egg white, horse serum or dog serum by 5-14 daily intraven., subcut. or alternating intraven. and subcut. injs. During the anaphylactic reactions which were observed in the horse and calf the histamine content of the blood was reduced. This result was in direct contrast to the marked increase in blood histamine found during anaphylactic shock in dogs and guinea-pigs (Code, 1938). There were no data which offered a satisfactory explanation of this difference. It may be that anaphylaxis is not accompanied by a liberation of histamine in all spp. but results did not justify this extreme interpretation. The fate of the histamine lost from the blood during the reactions was not known. Results simply showed that histamine did not accumulate in the peripheral blood.