A Study of Vital Staining with Trypan Blue in Shock in Rabbits and Guinea Pigs

Abstract

Summary For the rabbit, the tissues of importance in the absorption of trypan blue from the circulation during shock were found to be the skin, the mucous membranes, the blood vessels and the liver. For the guinea pig, the only tissue of importance was the skin. Since the appearance of the dye in the tissues is assumed to be only an indication of an edema, we may conclude that such a change can play no significant part in acute shock in the guinea pig, and that in the rabbit its effects are only indirect, producing the toxic rather than the acute syndrome usually manifested by this animal. But this is not to say that the first effect of an antigen-antibody reaction is not upon the capillary endothelium. Possibly the ensuing permeability is the first step in a stimulation of the smooth musculature so great, in the guinea pig, as to obscure the less spectacular oedema, especially since this last depends for its manifestation in a large measure both upon the time factor and a special type of tissue—rich in capillaries and connective tissue, which finds its highest development only in the skin.