The Effect of Biologic and Chemical Agents on the Experimental Production of Arteritis by Passive Sensitization

Summary

1. 1. Twenty-six male albino rabbits of the same strain and approximate age and weight were passively sensitized with rabbit anti-horse serum and challenged with horse serum according to a procedure favoring the production of acute lesions of periarteritis and panarteritis of the pulmonary arteries and arterioles.

2. 2. Nitrogen mustard in sufficient doses to induce and maintain a leukopenia was administered to twenty of the animals for one to two weeks prior to sensitization.

3. 3. Five of the six non-treated sensitized rabbits and fifteen of the twenty sensitized rabbits that received nitrogen mustard developed the typical lesions of panarteritis and periarterial infiltration of eosinophiles, lymphocytes and polymorphonuclear leukocytes, and eosinophilic infiltration into the media and intima of the small pulmonary arteries and pulmonary arterioles.

4. 4. The results of this study indicate that any suppressive effect of nitrogen mustard exerted on the arterial lesions due to hypersensitization mechanisms cannot be attributed to an interference with in vivo antigen-antibody reactions, or an alteration of the tissue response to antigen-antibody combinations by an anti-inflammatory action or through a deficiency of reacting cells secondary to the induced leukopenia.