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S E GREISMAN

Publications and source records attributed to S E GREISMAN.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

MECHANISMS OF ENDOTOXIN TOLERANCE. 3. THE REFRACTORY STATE DURING CONTINUOUS INTRAVENOUS INFUSIONS OF ENDOTOXIN.

Bacterial endotoxins were administered by continuous intravenous infusions at constant rates to normal man and rabbits. An initial progressive febrile reaction was followed by progressive defervescence to baseline. The resulting pyrogenic refractory state was characterized as follows: (a) reticuloendothelial blockade with thorotrast neither prevented nor reversed its course; (b) passive transfer was unsuccessful with refractory phase plasma; (c) infusions of normal plasma or fresh whole blood failed to restore responsiveness; (d) a minimum of 4 hours of continuous endotoxin infusion was required for full development of unresponsiveness; (e) circulating antibody titers to endotoxin remained unaltered; (f) peripheral leukocytosis appeared; (g) infusion of febrile phase plasma reevoked an immediate, monophasic fever; (h) endotoxinemia could be demonstrated by pyrogen bioassay; (i) 10-fold increases in endotoxin infusion rates reevoked fever; (j) impaired responsiveness extended to heterologous endotoxins; (k) dermal inflammatory responses to endotoxin were suppressed in man while tuberculin reactivity remained unimpaired; dermal inflammatory responses to endotoxin were enhanced in rabbits; and (l) pyrogenic reactivity to endotoxin reappeared within 24 hours in man; refractoriness persisted in rabbits. It is concluded that the pyrogenic refractory state reflects an inability of the host to continue to mobilize endogenous pyrogen during sustained endotoxinemia. Such observations, together with previous studies, are consistent with two distinct immunologic mechanisms of resistance to endotoxin pyrogenicity: (a) desensitization at the cellular level; and (b) elaboration of circulating antibodies which assist reticuloendothelial clearance and destruction of endotoxin. Whereas both such mechanisms may contribute to pyrogenic tolerance, the characteristics of the pyrogenic refractory state suggest the participation only of the former.

Allergy and Immunology↗

MECHANISMS OF ENDOTOXIN TOLERANCE. II. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ENDOTOXIN TOLERANCE AND RETICULOENDOTHELIAL SYSTEM PHAGOCYTIC ACTIVITY IN MAN.

Healthy male volunteers were rendered tolerant to the pyrogenic and toxic activities of bacterial endotoxin by daily intravenous injections. Five subjects were given 0.5 microg Salmonella typhosa endotoxin for 7 days; four subjects were given Pseudomonas endotoxin, increasing over a period of 30 days from 25 to 250 microg. Reticuloendothelial system (RES) phagocytic activity was assessed by serial measurements of the clearance of I(131)-labeled aggregated human serum albumin. In no subject was an increase in RES phagocytic activity detectable. Such negative findings could not be attributed to decreased RES blood flow.-Additional studies on the pyrogenic responses of man to various schedules of endotoxin administration revealed: (a) Hyperreactivity of some subjects to a second injection of endotoxin administered 24 hours after the initial dose; (b) prevention of such hyperreactivity by plasma from donors tolerant to a heterologous endotoxin, but not from normal donors; (c) reduced reactivity to a second injection of endotoxin given 7 days after the initial dose; (d) reversal of induced tolerance by administration of half the dose of endotoxin followed 2 hours later by the second half; (e) reversal of induced tolerance 24 hours after administration of a heterologous endotoxin; (f) enhanced dermal reactivity to endotoxin induced inflammation during tolerance. The observations are consistent with the hypothesis that tolerance to the pyrogenic activity of endotoxin in man is not based upon generalized enhancement of RES phagocytic activity or exhaustion of host reactivity but rather involves the participation of specific antibody which assists the RES in the clearance and inactivation of the endotoxin molecule.

Antigen-Antibody Reactions↗

Mechanisms of endotoxin tolerance. I. Relationship between tolerance and reticuloendothelial system phagocytic activity in the rabbit.

Pyrogenic tolerance following 7 daily intravenous injections of 2.0 microg/kg E. coli endotoxin in albino rabbits was associated with significant increases in RES phagocytic activity as measured with colloidal carbon. Nevertheless, 4 hours after RES blockade with thorotrast (3 ml/kg), the tolerant rabbits exhibited significantly lower fever indices following intravenous endotoxin challenge than did non-tolerant control animals despite comparably depressed capacities to clear carbon from the blood. Moreover, plasma from rabbits tolerant to endotoxin induced significant tolerance in normal rabbits prepared by thorotrast blockade without enhancing the depressed carbon clearance. This passive protection extended to heterologous endotoxins. Analysis of the data indicates that RES blockade does not abolish tolerance; rather blockade resets the reactivity to endotoxin in the normal and tolerant animal, rendering both exquisitely reactive, but permitting retention of the major portion of tolerance. Apparently the tolerant animal possesses a dual endotoxin defense system. One system is abolished by thorotrast; the other is in part humoral, accounts for the greater portion of tolerance, and is thorotrast-resistant. The nature of the humoral component is not defined but is consistent with that of an opsonin with high endotoxin specificity.

Animals↗

On the collapse of bacterial endotoxin resistance following hemorrhage.

Unanesthetized immature albino rabbits exposed to 2 hours of severe but reversible hemorrhagic shock induced with aseptic precautions by multiple cardiac bleedings exhibited no increase in susceptibility to single intravenous injections of 200 microg./kg. E. coli endotoxin administered 4 hours post retransfusion, a quantity of endotoxin that was found to be the largest dose uniformly non-lethal to normal rabbits. Paired and randomly selected rabbits treated identically except for the additional procedure of a femoral arterial cutdown and ligation (without aseptic precautions) exhibited increases in susceptibility to the same endotoxin of several hundredfold. This effect could not be attributed to the femoral cutdown and arterial ligation alone since such trauma when coupled with sham cardiac bleedings failed to increase susceptibility to 200 microg./kg. of endotoxin. These data appear valid since sham cardiac bleedings produced no detectable impairment of myocardial contractility, while 2 hours of hemorrhagic shock at 50 mm. Hg with the Lamson reservoir technique caused an increase in endotoxin susceptibility comparable to that seen when cardiac bleedings were combined with a non-sterile femoral arterial cutdown and ligation. The mechanisms increasing the susceptibility to E. coli endotoxin were investigated. It was found that (a) rabbit femoral skeletal muscle is normally contaminated with clostridia, (b) the use of aseptic femoral wounding precautions exerted some suggestive protective influence, (c) the use of aseptic wounding precautions combined with immediate topical sulfanilamide and wound closure exerted a significant protective influence, and (d) prophylactic polyvalent gas gangrene antitoxin protected in a manner not demonstrable when diphtheria antitoxin was employed as a control. These observations suggest that clostridial wound infection is one mechanism whereby a femoral arterial cutdown lowers endotoxin resistance of the rabbit following hemorrhagic shock. It is, however, not the only mechanism since the ligation of a femoral artery during hemorrhagic shock led to edema following retransfusion equivalent to a mean of approximately 30 per cent of the original circulating plasma volume. The intensification of shock caused by this transudation presumably intensified reticulo-endothelial injury, and thus further lowered the resistance of the rabbit to an intravenous injection of endotoxin 4 hours following retransfusion.

Animals↗