Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Publication Date

9-24-1969

Abstract

Richet and Portier in 1902 first described systemic anaphylaxis while investigating the immunization of dogs to the toxic substance of Actinaria (sea anemone). They noticed that the administration of a small dose (0.1 ml) of this toxic material to animals injected twenty-two days previously with a single sublethal toxin dose often resulted in the immediate death of the animal. They called this phenomenon anaphylaxis to indicate a reaction opposite in effect to prophylaxis. At about the same time as Richet's findings were being published, Theobald Smith, working independently, also discovered anaphylaxis by observing the phenomenon in guinea pigs while assaying diphtheria anti-toxin. Smith did not publish this observation, nor did he engage in any further investigation into the phenomenon, but he did communicate the finding to his friend, Ehrlich. Otto, working in Ehrlich's laboratory, extended Smith's findings and is credited with first demonstrating that there is a dichotomy between death by anaphylaxis and death by intoxication. As mentioned, the first investigators of anaphylaxis used toxin as the antigen which made interpretation of their work vulnerable to the criticism that the toxin was simply acting as a poison. Otto, however, showed that guinea pigs could be made to succumb to anaphylaxis using normal horse serum as the antigen, thus dispelling the belief that anaphylaxis might in reality be intoxication of extreme potency (36). The earliest publication showing that anaphylaxis was of a specific nature appeared in 1907 (94). This work of Rosenau and Anderson illustrates the prototype of the technique which has been utilized in the study of this phenomenon. For this reason, the technique and conclusions of that paper are briefly presented.

Sponsors

U.S. Public Health Predoctoral Fellowship No. 5 F01 GM34484, U.S. Public Health Service Grant CA 10129

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

English

Degree Name

Biomedical Sciences

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program

First Committee Member (Chair)

Sei Tokuda

Second Committee Member

Leroy Clarence McLaren

Third Committee Member

Beulah Marie Woodfin

Fourth Committee Member

Thomas F. Burks

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