Some pharmacodynamic properties of carrageenin in the rat

1. Carrageenin oedema is suppressed by pre-treating the rats with cellulose sulphate, a kininogen depleting agent. This inhibition is closely related to the dose of cellulose sulphate and to the time course of kininogen depletion.2. Oedema induced by egg white or by dextran, in which the mediators are histamine and 5-hydroxytryptamine, is quite unaffected by cellulose sulphate treatment.3. Carrageenin injected intravenously lowers the arterial blood pressure of rats. This hypotensive effect is unaffected by histamine antagonists and is abolished by protease inhibitors and thus seems to be due to kinin release from plasma substrates.4. Like cellulose sulphate, carrageenin enhances the esterolytic activity of the blood from treated rats when incubated with benzoyl-arginine ethyl ester.5. The ability of carrageenin to activate the kinin-forming system could account for both its inflammatory and hypotensive effects.