HALL C H, ATKINS E
J Exp Med. 1959 Apr 1;109(4):339-59. doi: 10.1084/jem.109.4.339.
Evidence has been presented that the fever elicited by intravenous administration of old tuberculin (O.T.) in BCG-infected rabbits is a specific property of this hypersensitivity system and is probably not due to contamination of tuberculin with bacterial endotoxins. Daily injections of O.T. in sensitized animals resulted in a rapid tolerance to its pyrogenic effect. Tuberculin tolerance can be differentiated from that occurring with endotoxins and was invariably associated with the development of a negative skin test. The mechanism of this tolerance would thus appear to be desensitization. A circulating pyrogen found during tuberculin fever was indistinguishable in its biologic effects from endogenous pyrogens obtained in several other types of experimental fever. This material produced fevers in normal recipients and therefore may be clearly differentiated from O.T. itself which was pyrogenic only to sensitized animals. Since the titer of serum pyrogen was directly proportional to the degree of fever induced by injection of O.T. in the donor animals, a causal relation is suggested. On the basis of these findings, it is postulated that tuberculin fever is due to a circulating endogenous pyrogen released by a specific action of O.T. on sensitized cells of the host.
已有证据表明，静脉注射旧结核菌素（O.T.）在卡介苗感染的兔子中引起的发热是这种超敏反应系统的一种特性，可能不是由于结核菌素被细菌内毒素污染所致。在致敏动物中每日注射O.T.会导致对其致热作用迅速产生耐受性。结核菌素耐受性可与内毒素引起的耐受性相区分，并且总是与皮肤试验阴性的出现相关。因此，这种耐受性的机制似乎是脱敏。在结核菌素发热期间发现的一种循环致热原，其生物学效应与在其他几种实验性发热中获得的内源性致热原无法区分。这种物质在正常受体中引起发热，因此可以与仅对致敏动物有热原性的O.T.本身明确区分开来。由于血清致热原的滴度与供体动物注射O.T.所诱导的发热程度直接相关，提示存在因果关系。基于这些发现，推测结核菌素发热是由于O.T.对宿主致敏细胞的特异性作用释放出一种循环内源性致热原所致。
