ANAPHYLAXIS 39S 



An ingenious attempt to demonstrate the important role played 

 by complement in anaphylaxis has recently been furnished by Loef- 

 fler. Loeffler, 32 using guinea pigs sensitized with horse serum, com- 

 pletely depleted their complement by injecting intraperitoneally con- 

 siderable quantities of sensitized sheep corpuscles. Tested by 

 injection of horse serum one hour later no anaphylaxis occurred, 

 while controls regularly succumbed. 33 



It seemed thus established that the complement or alexin played 

 an important active part in the production of anaphylaxis, and the 

 next logical step was to attempt to produce the anaphylactic poison 

 by the action of alexin upon an antigen-antibody complex in vitro. 

 This was first done, with direct reference to anaphylaxis, by Ulrich 

 Friedemann. 34 Friedemann chose as his antigen-antibody complex 

 the sensitized red blood cell after he had demonstrated by preliminary 

 experiment that the basic anaphylactic experiment could be carried 

 out in rabbits with washed beef corpuscles. He found that if 3 c. c. 

 of such, corpuscles were injected into rabbits and the injection re- 

 peated after 3 weeks anaphylactic symptoms were regularly elicited. 

 He then allowed alexin to act upon sensitized beef blood in vitro , 

 interrupted the action by cooling at a time just preceding the occur- 

 rence of hemolysis (to exclude the supposed toxic action of hemoglo- 

 bin), and injected the supernatant fluid of such mixtures into normal 

 rabbits. The result was marked illness resembling anaphylaxis, and 

 Friedemann thus had succeeded in producing the anaphylactic poison 

 in vitro under conditions as nearly as possible similar to those occur- 

 ring in the circulation of the anaphylactic rabbit. In the conclusions 

 drawn from his experiments he expresses the opinion that the poisons 

 were not preformed in the red blood cells, but were formed by the 

 proteolysis exerted by "amboceptor" and complement. In this state- 

 ment he sets down the basic conception of the production of anaphy- 

 lactic poisons now generally held. 



Friedemann, then, in attempts to apply the same methods to the 

 study of serum anaphylaxis, attempted to produce similar poisons 

 by the action of rabbit alexin upon the washed precipitates formed 

 by mixtures of antigen and precipitating sera. In this he failed 

 probably because of his choice of rabbits as subjects for experiment. 

 Where he had failed, however, Friedberger 35 succeeded by using 

 guinea pigs. Doerr and Russ 36 had previously shown that feeble 

 symptoms of shock could be produced by the injection of serum pre- 



32 Loeffler. Zeitschr. f. Immunitatsforsch., 8, 1910. 



33 For additional evidence pointing in the same direction see also Uhlen- 

 huth and Haendel, Zeitschr. f. Immunitatsforsch., Vol. 3, 1909. 



34 Ulrich Friedemann. Zeitschr. f. Immunitatsforsch., Vol. 2, 1909. 



35 Friedberger. Berl. klin. Woch., 32 and 42, 1910; also Zeitschr. f. 

 Immunitatsforsch., Vol. 4, 1910. 



36 Doerr and Russ. Zeitschr. f. Immunitatsforsch., Vol. 3, p. 181, 1909. 



