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Updated: Aug 9, 2026

Intravenous Endotoxin Challenge in Healthy Humans: An Experimental Platform to Investigate and Modulate Systemic Inflammation
Published on: May 16, 2016
Host defense against bacterial endotoxemia: mechanism in normal animals
Abstract:
The present study defines the early response of normal rabbits to the intravenous injection of a single, sublethal dose of endotoxin. Within the first few hours following endotoxin there occurs in the circulating plasma of recipients a decrease in ionized calcium, a threefold increase in the heat-stable, organo-phosphate-resistant esterase level, and a striking increase in the endotoxin-detoxifying capacity. These results are fully consistent with the thesis that circulating plasma represents a principal site of detoxification and that plasma esterases of the nonspecific, carboxylic type are of major concern in defense against circulating endotoxins.
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