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Studies in the site of sensitivity in the Arthus phenomenon
531
ABSTRACTS
jections consisted of 20 units of insulin given intravenously daily for five days, followed by a two-day rest period. This was repeated the second week The dosage was doubled in the third week. Frequently from two to four courses were atlministered. Nine to twelve days after the last injection the serum was tested for its antibody content by complement fixation tests and microprecipitative tests. The insulin used in the compleHypoglycemic reactions were prevented or treated. ment fixation test ~~a8 that of a species other than the one employe,d in sensitization, HO as to eliminate antigen-antibody reactions tlue to species protein rather than to insulin. An attempt to augment the antigrnic power of insulin by the use of horse serum as a synergistic antigen or with pilocarpine as a parasympathetic stimulant was tried with intlifferent sucvCss. In the sera from six of eleven animals which survived, tlefinite signs of specific antibody content co&l 1~ Ilemonstrated by the complement fixation reaction. Sufficient animal protein (IBeef) was shown to be present in commercially prepared insulin to allow sensitization of a rabbit to that protein by repeated injections of the insulin. Absorbing the beef protein antibody with an excess of beef extract did not, ho\%-ever, impair the complement fixation reaction of the insulin. Despite the fact that specific antibodies could be produced by the administration of the insulin, This indicated that the physiologic response to insulin apparently was not impairetl. antibodies produced against insulin do not act as antihormones.
An Heterophile
Pactor
in Ragweed
Pollen.
Sammis,
F. IL:
J. 1;xper.
aled.
71:
The serologic effects protlucrd in rabbits by injections of ragweed pollen extract and the relation of immune antisheep hemolysins in these animals to the homologous antigen, the Forssman antigen, and to human erythrocytes of groups A and B are reported. In addition, the effect of injections of ragweed pollen on the hemolysin titer of patients with ragweed hay fever was studied. Serologic evidence is presented that ragwee,d pollen antigen contains a facto1 which, when injected into rabbits, causes an increased hemolysin titer for sheep cells. The development of hemolysins in these animals was not coincident with the development of precipitins for ragweed pollen. By the hemolysis inhibition test, the antigen was shown to absorb antiragweed hemolysis. The immune hemolysins are completely absorbed by sheep cells and by the Forssman antigen, but not by human cells of groups A and B. The sera from twenty-two patients with ragweed hay fever showed no evidence of heat-labile or heat-stable hemolysin before or after treatment wit11 rag\\-eed pollen.
Studies in the Site of Sensitivity Follis,
F. H.,
Jr.:
Bull.
Johns
in the Arthus Hopkins
Hosp.
Phenomenon. 64:
IOG,
Rich,
A.
R.,
and
1940.
Since the hemorrhagic nature of the hrthus reaction is one of its prominent features, the present study was undertaken to determine whether the Arthus reaction could occur in the cells of a tissue that normally contains no blood vessels. Rabbits were sensitized with dog or horse serum until an Arthus reaction could be produced. In these animals, a drop of the specific serum into the substance of the cornea, an avascular tissue, usually disappeared after a few hours. Microscopic study of the eyes removed twenty-four and forty-eight hours after the injection showe,d little da.mage to the cornea1 cells, in marked contrast to the destruction of the cells observed in the cornea1 tuberculin reaction. The slight alteration and lack of necrosis in the avascular cornea was in strong contrast to the necrotic skin lesions following intracutaneous injections of the antigen in the same animal.
532
THE
JOURNAL
OF
ALLERGY
A minute drop of an irritant, e.g., a heavy suspension of heat-killed tubercle bacilli, injected into the cornea of one eye produced a vascularization of the cornea. At this time, the specific serum injected into the vascularized cornea produced a marked opacity and hemorrhage. In the opposite nonvascularized cornea and in the cornea of nonsensitized animals, the injected serum was absorbed and left a clear cornea. Microscopic study of eyes removed twenty-four and forty-eight hours after the intracorneal injection of the serum showed an intense inflammation in the vascularized corneas, with swelling of the cornea1 fibers, edema, marked polymorphonuclear infiltration, thrombosis, and rupture of the newly formed capillaries. These changes represented an immature Arthus reaction. Necrosis of the tissue cells was virtually absent. The authors conclude that tissue death in the Arthus reaction results primarily from impairment of nutrition due to vascular damage and to clogging of the tissue spaces with exudate and hemorrhage. Immunological Studies of Pollinosis: 1. The Presence of Two Antibodies to the Same Pollen-Antigen in the Serum of Treated Hay Fever Loveless, M. H.: J. Immunol. 38: 25, 1940.
Related Patients.
The present paper describes a simple means of determining the existence and approximate potency of the inhibiting antibody in the serum of treated hay fever patients. Studies were made on twenty-three sera obtained from eighteen hay fever patients treated with injections of ragweed pollen. A temperature of 56” C. maintained for from two to five hours or a temperature of 60” C. for from thirty to sixty minutes was found to destroy the skin-sensitizing antibody (atopic reagin) without diminishing the so-called inhibiting power of the sera. Titrations performed upon treated and untreated sera, obtained before and after treatment of ragweedsensitive patients, indicated that two distinct pollen-combining antibodies existed in the serum of the treated hay fever patients, whereas only one such antibody (atopic reagin) could be detected in serum obtained prior to treatment. The thermostabile “inhibiting” antibody was found to be inca.pable of sensitizing normal skin. When a mixture of thermostabile antibody, antigen, and reagin was introduced into a cutaneous site, no immediate urticarial reaction was elicited until antigen in excess of the binding requirement of the thermostabile antibody was The ‘ ‘ inhibiting’ ’ effect of this antibody was thus shown to be due to included. a specific neutralization of the antigen. The thermostabile antibody, absent in the serum of untreated allergic subjects, is readily induced in normal and in pollensensitive persons by parenteral administration of pollen antigen. Its potency may be estima.ted by the degree to which it can bind antigen and can increase the requirement of antigen for the neutralization of a passively sensitized cutaneous site. The thermostabile antibody also differs from the atopic reagin in that it disappears from a cutaneous site following injection within less than twenty-four hours.
Pediatrics UNDER
Allergy
THE
in Childhood.
DIRECTION
Hill,
OF WILLIAX
L. W.:
Bull.
C. DEAMER,
New
York
M.D.,
SAN
FRANCISCO
Acad.
Med.
16:
395,
1940.
Food allergens to which an infant is sensitized at, or shortly after, birth usually cause marked symptoms if ingested. Egg is an example. Sensitiveness acquired after birth is usually to a food regularly taken and is apt to be milder. Milk is the best example. It would seem that a child could become sensitive, singly or in
ABSTRACTS
jections consisted of 20 units of insulin given intravenously daily for five days, followed by a two-day rest period. This was repeated the second week The dosage was doubled in the third week. Frequently from two to four courses were atlministered. Nine to twelve days after the last injection the serum was tested for its antibody content by complement fixation tests and microprecipitative tests. The insulin used in the compleHypoglycemic reactions were prevented or treated. ment fixation test ~~a8 that of a species other than the one employe,d in sensitization, HO as to eliminate antigen-antibody reactions tlue to species protein rather than to insulin. An attempt to augment the antigrnic power of insulin by the use of horse serum as a synergistic antigen or with pilocarpine as a parasympathetic stimulant was tried with intlifferent sucvCss. In the sera from six of eleven animals which survived, tlefinite signs of specific antibody content co&l 1~ Ilemonstrated by the complement fixation reaction. Sufficient animal protein (IBeef) was shown to be present in commercially prepared insulin to allow sensitization of a rabbit to that protein by repeated injections of the insulin. Absorbing the beef protein antibody with an excess of beef extract did not, ho\%-ever, impair the complement fixation reaction of the insulin. Despite the fact that specific antibodies could be produced by the administration of the insulin, This indicated that the physiologic response to insulin apparently was not impairetl. antibodies produced against insulin do not act as antihormones.
An Heterophile
Pactor
in Ragweed
Pollen.
Sammis,
F. IL:
J. 1;xper.
aled.
71:
The serologic effects protlucrd in rabbits by injections of ragweed pollen extract and the relation of immune antisheep hemolysins in these animals to the homologous antigen, the Forssman antigen, and to human erythrocytes of groups A and B are reported. In addition, the effect of injections of ragweed pollen on the hemolysin titer of patients with ragweed hay fever was studied. Serologic evidence is presented that ragwee,d pollen antigen contains a facto1 which, when injected into rabbits, causes an increased hemolysin titer for sheep cells. The development of hemolysins in these animals was not coincident with the development of precipitins for ragweed pollen. By the hemolysis inhibition test, the antigen was shown to absorb antiragweed hemolysis. The immune hemolysins are completely absorbed by sheep cells and by the Forssman antigen, but not by human cells of groups A and B. The sera from twenty-two patients with ragweed hay fever showed no evidence of heat-labile or heat-stable hemolysin before or after treatment wit11 rag\\-eed pollen.
Studies in the Site of Sensitivity Follis,
F. H.,
Jr.:
Bull.
Johns
in the Arthus Hopkins
Hosp.
Phenomenon. 64:
IOG,
Rich,
A.
R.,
and
1940.
Since the hemorrhagic nature of the hrthus reaction is one of its prominent features, the present study was undertaken to determine whether the Arthus reaction could occur in the cells of a tissue that normally contains no blood vessels. Rabbits were sensitized with dog or horse serum until an Arthus reaction could be produced. In these animals, a drop of the specific serum into the substance of the cornea, an avascular tissue, usually disappeared after a few hours. Microscopic study of the eyes removed twenty-four and forty-eight hours after the injection showe,d little da.mage to the cornea1 cells, in marked contrast to the destruction of the cells observed in the cornea1 tuberculin reaction. The slight alteration and lack of necrosis in the avascular cornea was in strong contrast to the necrotic skin lesions following intracutaneous injections of the antigen in the same animal.
532
THE
JOURNAL
OF
ALLERGY
A minute drop of an irritant, e.g., a heavy suspension of heat-killed tubercle bacilli, injected into the cornea of one eye produced a vascularization of the cornea. At this time, the specific serum injected into the vascularized cornea produced a marked opacity and hemorrhage. In the opposite nonvascularized cornea and in the cornea of nonsensitized animals, the injected serum was absorbed and left a clear cornea. Microscopic study of eyes removed twenty-four and forty-eight hours after the intracorneal injection of the serum showed an intense inflammation in the vascularized corneas, with swelling of the cornea1 fibers, edema, marked polymorphonuclear infiltration, thrombosis, and rupture of the newly formed capillaries. These changes represented an immature Arthus reaction. Necrosis of the tissue cells was virtually absent. The authors conclude that tissue death in the Arthus reaction results primarily from impairment of nutrition due to vascular damage and to clogging of the tissue spaces with exudate and hemorrhage. Immunological Studies of Pollinosis: 1. The Presence of Two Antibodies to the Same Pollen-Antigen in the Serum of Treated Hay Fever Loveless, M. H.: J. Immunol. 38: 25, 1940.
Related Patients.
The present paper describes a simple means of determining the existence and approximate potency of the inhibiting antibody in the serum of treated hay fever patients. Studies were made on twenty-three sera obtained from eighteen hay fever patients treated with injections of ragweed pollen. A temperature of 56” C. maintained for from two to five hours or a temperature of 60” C. for from thirty to sixty minutes was found to destroy the skin-sensitizing antibody (atopic reagin) without diminishing the so-called inhibiting power of the sera. Titrations performed upon treated and untreated sera, obtained before and after treatment of ragweedsensitive patients, indicated that two distinct pollen-combining antibodies existed in the serum of the treated hay fever patients, whereas only one such antibody (atopic reagin) could be detected in serum obtained prior to treatment. The thermostabile “inhibiting” antibody was found to be inca.pable of sensitizing normal skin. When a mixture of thermostabile antibody, antigen, and reagin was introduced into a cutaneous site, no immediate urticarial reaction was elicited until antigen in excess of the binding requirement of the thermostabile antibody was The ‘ ‘ inhibiting’ ’ effect of this antibody was thus shown to be due to included. a specific neutralization of the antigen. The thermostabile antibody, absent in the serum of untreated allergic subjects, is readily induced in normal and in pollensensitive persons by parenteral administration of pollen antigen. Its potency may be estima.ted by the degree to which it can bind antigen and can increase the requirement of antigen for the neutralization of a passively sensitized cutaneous site. The thermostabile antibody also differs from the atopic reagin in that it disappears from a cutaneous site following injection within less than twenty-four hours.
Pediatrics UNDER
Allergy
THE
in Childhood.
DIRECTION
Hill,
OF WILLIAX
L. W.:
Bull.
C. DEAMER,
New
York
M.D.,
SAN
FRANCISCO
Acad.
Med.
16:
395,
1940.
Food allergens to which an infant is sensitized at, or shortly after, birth usually cause marked symptoms if ingested. Egg is an example. Sensitiveness acquired after birth is usually to a food regularly taken and is apt to be milder. Milk is the best example. It would seem that a child could become sensitive, singly or in