Abstract
Experimental anaphylaxis has been described in most of the mammals, pigeons and frogs. The guinea pig is known to be particularly susceptible to anaphylaxis and it has been most extensively used in experimental studies on anaphylaxis. It is a fortunate choice since the physiological mechanism of anaphylactic shock in the guinea pig has been proved to be more similar to the manifestations of allergy in man than those of anaphylaxis in other laboratory animals (1). Passive cutaneous anaphylaxis and mortality rate in shock of the guinea pig are used for screening of anti-allergic drugs. Up to this time, serveral authors have reported the screening methods using the mortality rate in the mouse (2-4), but they estimated the efficicacy only by all-or-none criteria, so that these methods seem to be lacking in accuracy. It was reported that anaphylaxis in the rat is associated with a marked increase in intestinal capillary permeability (5). On the other hand, the increase in capillary permeability of the mouse peritoneal cavity has been used for testing anti-inflammatory drugs (6). In this investigation this response is applied for quantitative estimation of the effects of some drugs including anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic drugs on the anaphlaxis of the mouse.
