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The Effect of Acth and Cortisone on the Concentration of Circulating Diphtheria Antitoxin^1,2,

From the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Pa., and the Army Hepatic and Metabolic Center, Valley Forge General Hospital, Phoenixville, Pa.

Abstract

1. ACTH or cortisone was administered to 31 Schick-negative patients at varying times following the injection of 50 Lf purified diphtheria toxoid, and the amounts of circulating antitoxin produced were measured by titration in the skin of rabbits. There was no alteration in the qualitative pattern of production of circulating antibody when compared with that elaborated by similarly immunized control subjects who did not received ACTH or cortisone.

2. The administration of these substances did not augment the amount of circulating antitoxin when they were given during the period of decline of antibody; nor did they prevent the production of considerable amounts of antibody when they were given early in the period of hyperimmunization.

3. When compared with the results found in hyperimmunized patients not receiving ACTH, there was a greater percentage of reduction in amount of circulating antibody 1 and 2 weeks after therapy with ACTH when treatment was begun as the amount of antibody was approaching its maximum or declining.

4. Similar reductions in amounts of circulating antibody were not found in 3 patients who received cortisone for 13 days, beginning on the 14th day after the injection of diphtheria toxoid.

5. The only significant alteration in amount of antibody found 4 or 8 hours after a single dose of ACTH was a mild reduction in 1 patient.

Footnotes

¹ This investigation was conducted, in part, with the aid of the Commission on Virus and Rickettsial Diseases and the Commission on Liver Diseases, Armed Forces Epidemiological Board, Office of The Surgeon General, U. S. Army, Washington, D. C.

² The authors wish to express their appreciation for the advice and assistance of Dr. C. M. MacLeod and Dr. A. M. Pappenheimer, Jr., New York University College of Medicine.

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