Inhibition of Fatal Anaphylaxis in Mice inoculated with a Virus-induced Leukaemic Tumour Extract

Abstract

THE salutary effect of intensive parenteral treatment with erythropoietin-containing rabbit serum in mice infected at 2 days of age with a leukaemia virus has been reported¹. During the investigation ten of twenty-two mice that developed signs of neoplastic disease as determined by palpation of spleen and lymph nodes later showed evidence of regression of these phenomena. To exclude the possibility that the splenomegaly and lymphadenopathy were a hyperplastic response to repeated inoculation of a foreign antigen, the effect of rabbit serum on uninfected mice was tested using the same regimen as that used for infected mice. Splenomegaly and lymphadenopathy were minimal and transient in these circumstances, but a proportion of the uninfected mice died from anaphylactic shock during the course of treatment whereas infected mice did not. The present communication is concerned with this observation.