[Biogenic amine content and the pathomorphological shifts in different organs and tissues in a period of the hematogennic spread and fixation of botulin toxin].

In experiments on cats it was shown that 30 minutes after intravenous injection of botulinum toxin, type C, there was a fall in the catecholamine and histamine contents with a simultaneous increase of serotonin in various structures of the brain and spinal cord and in a number of inner organs as well. The metabolic changes in the biogenic amines were combined with certain pathomorphologic changes seen in the form of acute swelling, chromatolysis, destruction of some neurons of the spinal cord and brain, distrophic changes in inner organs, and an increased permeability of the blood-tissue barriers. Marked biochemical and pathomorphologic changes in the spinal cord and brain where the minimum concentration of toxin becomes manifest during its spreading allow a conclusion that botulinum neurotoxin shows its pathogenic action through a disturbed metabolism of biologically active substances.