The problem of dextran intolerance and its specific prevention with hapten inhibition. A part of the history of applied immunology
Ring, J.
Fortschritte der Medizin 100(41): 1917-1921
1982
ISSN/ISBN: 0015-8178 PMID: 6185400 Document Number: 184853
Dextrans are used in clinical medicine since more than 35 years. One of the main problems of dextran application are severe incompatibility reactions of the anaphylactoid type. Lethal cases have been reported. In the early fifties antibodies against high molecular weight dextrans have been described in patients with incompatibility reactions as well as in normals. By the introduction of new dextrans (produced by B. Leuconostoc mesenteroides B 512) with lower molecular weight and less branching newer solutions were developed without immunogenicity. When, in the early seventies, cases of severe incompatibility reactions to those dextrans were reported, nonimmunological mechanisms were discussed as e.g. direct mediator release--as in the model of rat dextran hypersensitivity--or direct complement activation via the alternative pathway.