Anaphylaxis and Histamine Release in the Rabbit

Since the time that the similarity of the symp- toms of histamine intoxication and acute anaphy- lactic shock was pointed out by Dale and Laidlaw (1910), an impressive body of evidence implicating histamine in anaphylaxis has accumulated. An increased concentration of circulating histamine was obtained by Dragstedt and Gebauer-Fuelnegg (1932) in supradiaphragmatic venous blood of the shocked dog. Similar observations were later made for the guinea-pig as well as for the dog The release of histamine from an isolated tissue during the antigen-antibody reaction of anaphylaxis was shown for the perfused guineapig lung (Bartosch, Feldberg, and Nagel, 1932), and Schild (1939), employing a tissue incubation technique, found that this was true, though to a varying degree, for many tissues of the guinea-pig. The anaphylactic release of histamine is marked in the liver of the dog (Dragstedt and Gebauer-