Heparin and acute inflammation in the rat.

The subcutaneous injection of heparin into the dorsal cervical region of rats 30 min before the intrapedal administration of carrageenin significantly impaired the local inflammatory reaction from 2 h through to 6 h. This observation implies that the release of endogenous heparins from tissue mast cells may play a role in modulating the extent of the response to inflammatory insults.