Action of Salicylates and Related Drugs on Inflammation

Abstract
A method was presented for the evaluation of the anti-inflammatory action exerted by salicylate and related drugs. Results obtained by this method were consistent with clinically observed effects of these drugs. Although salicylate did stimulate the pituitary-adrenocortical system, it could not inhibit inflammation by this mechanism since its action was not prevented by hypophysectomy or adrenalectomy. The anti-inflammatory action of the drugs studied may be explained by the fact that they inhibit fibrinolysin, an enzyme which probably plays a role in the mechanism of inflammation. A satisfactory parallelism was observed between the in vivo anti-inflammatory action and the in vitro fibrinolysin inhibition. The concns. of salicylate which inhibited fibrinolysin in vitro were of the same order as the blood levels required for the in vivo pharmacological action.