Abstract
Hochwald 1 and others have reported that the administration of Vitamin C to sensitized guinea pigs exercises a protective effect against the anaphylactic reaction produced by the provocative injection of the antigen. Hochwald reported that Vitamin C administration had no protective effect against histamine shock and therefore postulated that the mechanism of the action of Vitamin C in anaphylaxis was to prevent the liberation of histamine rather than to inhibit or inactivate the action of histamine after its liberation. Ungar, Parrot, and Levillain 2 reported some in vitro experiments tending to confirm this hypothesis. We were unable to confirm the protective effect of Vitamin C against anaphylaxis in the dog. Since the anaphylactic experiment is, however, quite complex and it is not always possible to discriminate between those agents which may interfere with the antibody-antigen reactions and those which modify the resultant reaction, it seemed desirable to test the above hypothesis of the mechanism of action of Vitamin C in a histamine liberating reaction that is apparently not dependent upon an antigen-antibody reaction. Such a reaction occurs in peptone shock. We have demonstrated that peptone shock in dogs is accompanied by an explosive liberation of histamine and that the degree of shock is proportional to the amount of histamine liberated. 3 We have, therefore, studied the effect of the prior administration of Vitamin C upon the severity of peptone shock in dogs.
Eleven dogs were anesthetized with ether and sodium barbital and the carotid blood pressure tracings recorded to provide an objective record of the severity of the shock reactions. Cevitamic acid∗ was injected intravenously in amounts varying from 25 to 100 mg per kilo and after varying intervals of from 15 to 45 minutes an injection of 2 cc per kilo of a 10% solution of a proteose peptone† was made. Definite shock reactions occurred in 10 animals, 2 being rapidly fatal, 5 quite severe, and 3 mild. The distribution of the varying grades of severity of shock was similar with that in a large number of controls. 3 Blood samples were drawn approximately 5 minutes after the peptone injection and the presence of histamine demonstrated in all instances in which the reaction was severe. 3
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