Effect of Hemorrhagic Shock on Certain Antibacterial Defense Mechanisms in the Rabbit

¹ From the Department of Experimental Surgery, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, D. C.

Rabbits were subjected to hemorrhagic shock, then injected intravenously with bacteria during the posttransfusion period. Little if any loss of capacity to clear the blood stream of strains of either Staphylococcus aureus, coagulase positive, or Staph. albus, coagulase negative, was demonstrated. However, the rate at which bacterial clearance occurred was delayed. Plasma was obtained from rabbits subjected to lethal hemorrhagic shock, before hemorrhage and shortly after retransfusion. The antibacterial activity of the plasma against strains of Klebsiella pneumoniae, Escherichia freundii, and Staph. aureus was found to remain unchanged. However, the plasma from approximately one-third of the rabbits lost the capacity to kill or suppress a strain of Staph. albus.