Estimation of Histamine in the Blood and Other Tissues of Rats and Guinea Pigs Infected with Trichinella spiralis

Abstract

Although the life cycle of Trichinella spiralis (Owen) is well understood and the histopathology and immunology of trichinosis have been extensively investigated, little is known concerning the toxicology of the infection. Since one of the products of tissue destruction is believed to be histamine, and the acute symptoms of trichinosis appear at the height of tissue invasion and presumably tissue destruction, an investigation has been made concerning changes in the histamine content of the blood and certain other tissues of albino rats and guinea pigs experimentally infected with T. spiralis. Several investigators have suggested the possibility that the destruction of tissue and irritation caused by the migrating larvae of T. spiralis might result in the production of toxic materials and chemical changes in the blood. The first attempt to detect such poisons and determine their chemical nature was made by Flury (1913), who reproduced the symptoms of trichinosis by the subcutaneous injections of aqueous and alcoholic extracts of heavily infected muscles. He attributed the effects to no one particular substance but rather to a group of purine bases and creatine derivatives, such as methyl guanidine. Harwood, Spindler, Cross and Cutler (1937) using the method of Minot and Dodd (1933), reported an increase in guanidine in rabbits infected experimentally with T. spiralis. While increased guanidine has been reported in several diseases, its significance has been questioned (Sollman, 1942). Histamine has a more pronounced pharmacological action than does guanidine and may possibly be a significant toxic agent in trichinosis. Increases of this substance in the blood and other tissues have been reported in a number of conditions including severe burns (Rosenthal, 1937), anaphylactic shock (Code, 1939), traumatic shock (Dale and Laidlaw, 1919), and adrenalectomy (Rose and Browne, 1941).