Pyrogens fail to produce fever in a cordylid lizard.

We investigated the effects on body temperature of the lizard Cordylus cataphractus of intracardiac injections of leucocyte pyrogen (LP) synthesized from rabbit blood and of killed Aeromonas hydrophila, a gram-negative bacterium reputed to be pathogenic in lizards. Lizards were placed in a photothermal gradient that allowed them to select a preferred body temperature following the injections. Neither injection of 0.5 ml rabbit LP nor of 4 X 10(9) organisms of A. hydrophila in 0.2 ml sterile saline caused body temperature of lizards to differ from that of control lizards injected with sterile saline. Following injection of these solutions in the lizards placed in a thermal gradient where ambient temperature ranged from 20-88 degrees C, body temperature was maintained between 32 and 34 degrees C. Pyrogens failed to elevate body temperature even when body temperature was elevated artificially to 36 degrees C before injection. We conclude that C. cataphractus does not respond with fever to either rabbit LP or A. hydrophila. Fever may not be ubiquitous even among lizards.