Mechanisms of endotoxin tolerance. I. Relationship between tolerance and reticuloendothelial system phagocytic activity in the rabbit.

Pyrogenic tolerance following 7 daily intravenous injections of 2.0 microg/kg E. coli endotoxin in albino rabbits was associated with significant increases in RES phagocytic activity as measured with colloidal carbon. Nevertheless, 4 hours after RES blockade with thorotrast (3 ml/kg), the tolerant rabbits exhibited significantly lower fever indices following intravenous endotoxin challenge than did non-tolerant control animals despite comparably depressed capacities to clear carbon from the blood. Moreover, plasma from rabbits tolerant to endotoxin induced significant tolerance in normal rabbits prepared by thorotrast blockade without enhancing the depressed carbon clearance. This passive protection extended to heterologous endotoxins. Analysis of the data indicates that RES blockade does not abolish tolerance; rather blockade resets the reactivity to endotoxin in the normal and tolerant animal, rendering both exquisitely reactive, but permitting retention of the major portion of tolerance. Apparently the tolerant animal possesses a dual endotoxin defense system. One system is abolished by thorotrast; the other is in part humoral, accounts for the greater portion of tolerance, and is thorotrast-resistant. The nature of the humoral component is not defined but is consistent with that of an opsonin with high endotoxin specificity.