Endonasal venular permeability in rats exposed to the cold.

Sixteen rats were killed 22 hrs after being injected with a dose of 4 mCi(198)Au mixed with 16 mg of inert colloidal gold/100g body wt. The anterior nasal mucosa of the septum and turbinates in 10 rats which were injected and kept in a temperature of 5-7 degrees C showed mean radioactive counts 2-3 times higher than those recorded in the same areas in 6 control rats kept in ordinary room temperature (22 degrees C). In all sixteen rats the highest counts were obtained in the RES organs, namely the liver, spleen, adrenals and the bone marrow, in descending order. Other tissues revealed no significant radioactivity except for minor counts in the lungs and kidneys. The importance of these findings regarding the localisation of granulomatous diseases and vasculitis in the nose is discussed.