Species Differences in Response to Cortisone in Wounded Animals

CORTISONE'S interference with wound healing has been well documented in experimental studies,¹⁻³but surgeons are not convinced that patients receiving cortisone suffer unduly from wound complications. That species differences may play a role is strongly suggested in the nice study of Shewell and Long⁴who studied the effect of cortisone in six different animal species and found that there were two distinct groups: one group was sensitive to cortisone and one was not. Studying changes in body and organ weights, γ-globulin formation, and antibody production, they showed cortisone sensitivity in rabbits, ferrets, rats, and mice, but a refractoriness to cortisone in guinea pigs and rhesus monkeys. The species differences were clear cut and complete. Because surgeons have often referred to a lack of cortisone effect in patients and because guinea pigs and monkeys do not respond to cortisone like the standard laboratory animals, a test of the cortisone