Intravenous administration of bacterial endotoxins in dogs is followed within 2 hours by the appearance of a fever-producing substance in the blood. This endogenous pyrogen differs from the endotoxins originally administered by its ability to produce fever in tolerant recipients and failure to promote tolerance after repeated daily injections. Endogenous serum pyrogen is destroyed by heating at 90°C. for 30 minutes, and is also inactivated to some degree by incubation at 37°C. for 24 hours. Suppression of fever by aminopyrine does not affect appearance of the endogenous factor. Animals made febrile with dinitrophenol, kaolin, or lysergic acid do not elaborate a fever-promoting substance in the blood. Sterile abscesses, accompanied by elevations in body temperature of the host, are unassociated with detectable amounts of secondary pyrogen in the serum. The absence of endogenous pyrogen in the blood of febrile dogs made leukopenic with nitrogen mustard favors the idea that polymorphonuclear leukocytes injured by endotoxins release the endogenous factor. On the other hand, the finding that the granulocytopenic animals are febrile when no circulating endogenous pyrogen is present, casts doubt upon the essential role of this substance in endotoxin fever.
Article|
August 01 1957
STUDIES ON THE PATHOGENESIS OF FEVER : VIII. FEVER-PRODUCING SUBSTANCES IN THE SERUM OF DOGS
Robert G. Petersdorf,
Robert G. Petersdorf
From the Biological Division of the Department of Medicine, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore
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Ivan L. Bennett, Jr.
Ivan L. Bennett, Jr.
From the Biological Division of the Department of Medicine, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore
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Robert G. Petersdorf
From the Biological Division of the Department of Medicine, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore
Ivan L. Bennett, Jr.
From the Biological Division of the Department of Medicine, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore
Received:
April 25 1957
Online ISSN: 1540-9538
Print ISSN: 0022-1007
Copyright, 1957, by The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research New York
1957
J Exp Med (1957) 106 (2): 293–314.
Article history
Received:
April 25 1957
Citation
Robert G. Petersdorf, Ivan L. Bennett; STUDIES ON THE PATHOGENESIS OF FEVER : VIII. FEVER-PRODUCING SUBSTANCES IN THE SERUM OF DOGS . J Exp Med 1 August 1957; 106 (2): 293–314. doi: https://doi.org/10.1084/jem.106.2.293
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