Abstract
There are many features of histamine “shock” and the “intoxication” of adrenal insufficiency which are similar. Karady has found 1 that the incidence and severity of surgical shock or histamine shock in the rat may be reduced by previous treatment with histamine. We have found that pretreatment with increasing doses of histamine will increase the resistance of adrenalectomized rats to certain procedures to which they are ordinarily very susceptible.
Bilateral nephrectomy causes a marked decrease in the survival time of rats from which both adrenals have been removed. 1 , 3 Sixteen male albino rats weighing from 144-193 g were divided into 2 groups with an average weight of 170 g. The histamine-treated group was given a 10% suspension of finely ground crystals of histamine dihydrochloride in olive oil so that its action might be more protracted. 4 Ten nig were administered subcutaneously daily for 6 days, followed by 20 mg per day for 8 days more, a total of 220 mg per rat. At this time the 2 groups still weighed about the same but the histamine-treated rats appeared to be in the poorer condition. Sixty hours after discontinuing the histamine treatment the adrenals and the kidneys were removed from all of the rats. In the histamine-treated group the cortex of the adrenal gland had become hypertrophied so that the adrenals of this group weighed 31% more than those of the controls. The survival time of the 2 groups of rats was quite at variance with their appearance. The untreated controls survived for from 25 to 41 hours with an average of 34.6 hours. The histamine-treated group, on the other hand, lived from 43 to 73.5 hours with an average of 56.8 hours, an increase in the average survival time of 64%.
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