Abstract
The effect of the incubation with serum on the toxicity of endotoxin was studied in adrenalectomized rats. The survival times of rats treated with a endotoxin-normal rat serum mixture after a brief incubation (1–2 min) was significantly shorter than the control values (endotoxin alone). However, after longer incubation periods (30–60 min) the average survival time was significantly longer than in the controls. The various “decomplementing” methods (heat inactivation, zymosan adsorption, C4-inactivator treatment) prevented both the endotoxicity-enhancing and the detoxifying effect of rat serum. Thus it seems probable that two complement-dependent processes acting in opposite directions take place in the circulation of endotoxin-treated animals: 1. generation of biologically active materials from late acting complement components and 2. detoxification of endotoxin. It was also shown that the activation of the late-acting complement components (C3-C9) by endotoxin increased by 100 times after adrenalectomy in rats.
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