Anesthesia-associated depression in lymphocyte traffic and its modulation.

All anesthetic agents studied, general and local, that controlled pain sufficiently to permit surgery, produced sharp and prolonged reductions in the output of small and blast lymphocytes into efferent lymph from levels encountered in unanesthetized animals. The depth and duration of the depression in lymphocyte traffic were related to the doses of anesthetic agents and had no relation to the surgical trauma involved. Inflammation from previous recent drainage area surgery, extensive intraoperative manipulation of edematous inflammatory tissue, and postoperative manipulation of inflammatory tissue by distention manipulation with injected fluid were found to exert a strong modulating effect on the anesthesia-associated depression in lymphocyte traffic with the capability of rather quick action in elevating lymphocyte traffic. Rapid infusion of bradykinin and 8-bromo cyclic guanosine monophosphate, both traffic enhancing agents, into cannulated afferent lymphatic vessels of the study nodes during anesthesia-associated depression in traffic also were found to exert a modulating effect with prompt increases in lymphocyte output into the efferent lymph.