Leucocyte migration and lysosomal enzymes release in rat carrageenin pleurisy.

The time course of rat carrageenin pleurisy has been studied. The inflammatory reaction is characterized by exudate formation and massive leucocyte emigration into the pleural space both reaching peak values at 24 hours. Moreover betaglucuronidase, acid phosphatase and lactic dehydrogenase have been assayed in the exudate. The activity of lysosomal enzymes parallels the severity of the inflammatory response, while that of cytoplasmic enzyme lactic dehydrogenase resulted unmodified. Treatment of animals with indomethacin, phenylbutazone, aspirin and flufenamic acid inhibited both exudate formation and leucocyte emigration. In contrast none of these drugs was able to reduce lysosomal enzyme release.