The Hypoglycemic Activity of Endotoxin I. Occurrence in Animals Hyperreactive to Endotoxin

Abstract

Mice were made hyperreactive to endotoxin by BCG infection, zymosan injections, and by adrenalectomy, and the effect of endotoxin on the blood sugar concentration of these animals was determined. All of the mice developed hypoglycemia after small doses of endotoxin and in the BCG mice and in the zymosan-treated mice the hypoglycemia was often of sufficient magnitude to cause death. Efforts to save endointoxicated BCG mice by intermittent glucose administration were unsuccessful, and experiments with diabetic mice showed that the hypoglycemic and lethal effects of endotoxin were not necessarily associated with one another.