Reticulo-endothelial system in relation to drum shock.

The administration of colloidal matter, sufficient to blockade the phagocytic activity of the reticulo-endothelial system (RES) in the liver and spleen of rats, has a dramatic effect on the subsequent response to drum trauma. Standardized episodes of trauma in the Noble-Collip drum become more lethal and refractory to therapeutic measures. Resistance to trauma, induced by adaptation to doses of increasing severity, is likewise attenuated by blockade of the RES. The predisposing effects were both dose- and time-dependent. The administration of cortisone in large doses (10–20 mg), an amount shown also to depress RES activity, undermines the capacity of normal rats to withstand traumatic shock, but has no such effect on trauma-resistant animals. It is suggested that the physiological adaptation to trauma may involve an altered relation of the RES to corticosteroids.