STUDIES ON THE ROLE OF THE ADRENAL IN ANAPHYLAXIS AND HISTAMINE-SHOCK

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Abstract
THE adrenal gland has been suspected of involvement in allergic conditions for over 20 years. In an early paper Wyman (1929) reported that adrenalectomized rats with adrenal transplants in the abdominal muscles were as susceptible to histamine poisoning and anaphylactic shock as adrenalectomized rats without transplants, but treatment with adrenalin somewhat alleviated this susceptibility. In a later paper, however, Wyman and Turn Suden (1937) reported the lethal doses of histamine to be as follows: normal rats, 100 mg. per kg. of body weight; adrenalec-tomized rats, 10 mg. per kg.; and adrenalectomized rats with adrenal transplants, 40 mg. per kg. Ingle (1937) also showed that autoplastic cortical transplants do not completely replace the function of the excised gland in rats. Perla and Gottesman (1931) found that adrenal cortical extract decreased the susceptibility of adrenalectomized rats to histamine and suggested that this property could serve as a basis for a cortical hormone assay.