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We used a suppressor-cell assay to study a possible mechanism of allergy desensitization. Before specific immunotherapy, blood mononuclear cells from 20 patients with ragweed hayfever failed to exhibit suppressor activity in vitro after stimulation by ragweed antigen E. However, when the 10 patients with allergic rhinitis had been desensitized by injections of ragweed extract, their mononuclear cells specifically suppressed a ragweed proliferative response six and 12 months after desensitization was begun (31 per cent and 48 per cent suppression, respectively). Suppressor mononuclear cells were not detected in 10 control subjects of in 10 patients with ragweed hayfever who were not desensitized. When mononuclear cells taken from treated patients were passed over columns containing insolubilized histamine, antigen-specific suppressor cells that could be activated by ragweed antigen were depleted. These results indicate that antigen-specific suppressor cells, probably bearing histamine receptors, are generated during desensitization to allergy and may be partly responsible for the efficacy of this therapy.

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Lidocaine pharmacokinetics are described in the unanesthetized restrained rhesus monkey after bolus and steady infusion. Simultaneous measurements of systemic and regional blood flows and tissue masses were made in the same animals. Physiologic data are combined in a perfusion model that is predictive of kinetics of lidocaine in the mankey. The model uses eight tissue compartments. Concentrations of lidocaine are described in various tissues at various times. In the first seconds after an intravenous bolus, much at the lidocaine is sequestered by the lungs; then by heart and kidneys and other rapidly perfused tissues. Redistribution then occurs into skeletal muscle and adipose tissue, which accounts for the long observed half-life of lidocaine. Blood flow and tissue composition data from monkeys can be applied to man to predict blood levels of lidocaine after intravenous in;ection. The perfusion model is therefore potentially useful in describing and predicting blood levels in states of cardiovascular disease in both monkey and man.