Endotoxin-Induced Susceptibility to Staphylococcal Infection and Its Reversal by Adrenergic Blocking Agents1

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Sultzer, Barnet M. (Princeton Laboratories, Inc., Princeton, N.J.), and Henry H. Freedman. Endotoxin-induced susceptibility to staphylococcal infection and its reversal by adrenergic blocking agents. J. Bacteriol. 90:1001–1006. 1965.—The transient phase of increased susceptibility to bacterial infection in mice provoked by prior administration of small doses of endotoxin was investigated for possible mediation by vasoactive substances. Animals were given endotoxin intravenously shortly before intraperitoneal injection of Staphylococcus aureus Smith, thereby lowering the lethal inoculum 10-fold. To determine whether this susceptibility state could be obviated, mice were pretreated with phenoxybenzamine or dibenzylchlorethylamine. Mortality decreased from an average of 81% in the endotoxin control groups to about 23% in the treated mice, closely approximating the mortality in control mice injected with saline and staphylococci. Neither antiadrenergic agent independently altered the resistance of mice to a higher lethal staphylococcal challenge, nor did these materials induce extravascular leukocyte mobilization into the peritoneal cavity. The results suggest a possible role of vasoactive staphylococcal α-toxin, as well as epinephrine or epinephrine-like factors, in this altered state of resistance to staphylococcal infection.

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