Background: Recent research indicates that injections inducing unwanted anaphylactoid reactions occur frequently in a clinical setting. In this paper, we explored anaphylactoid reactions trends in animal models following ginsenosides injections.
Methods: Our anaphylactoid animal model was optimized by comparing reactions between BN rats, SD rats, guinea pigs and ICR mice to first intravenous exposure to standard compounds including ovalbumin (OVA), tannic acid (TA), Tween 80 (T80), bovine serum albumin (BSA) and Compound 48/80 (C48/80), Shengmai injection (SMI) and Xuesaitong injection (XSTI) which contains ginsenosides, respectively. The anaphylactoid symptoms were documented and the plasma levels of histamine were assessed. Subsequently, the IgE levels and total complement activity (CH50) were determined to further explore the mechanisms underlying the observed anaphylactoid reactions on the optimized animal model.
Results: We observed that BN rats and guinea pigs exhibited particularly exacerbated symptoms after administration of OVA, T80, TA, SMI and XSTI. Regarding histamine levels, we observed that BN rats were more sensitive to TA and XSTI, guinea pigs were more sensitive to OVA, T80 and SMI, and SD rats were more sensitive to C48/80. According to both anaphylactoid symptom scores and histamine secretion rates, BN rats, in particular, were found to be more sensitive to OVA, T80, TA, SMI and XSTI. Noteworthy however, the four rodents showed significantly weaker anaphylactoid reactions after administration of BSA.
Conclusion: BN rats were more suitable for comprehensive evaluation of anaphylatoid reactions following injections; both IgE levels and CH50 could be used as auxiliary mediators for the assessment of anaphylactoid reactions.