Time course analyses of kinins and other mediators in plasma exudation of rat kaolin-induced pleurisy

Pleurisy was induced in rats by an intrapleural injection of 0.5 ml of 1% kaolin. The exudation of plasma into the pleural cavity showed two peaks at 20 min and 3-5 h after the kaolin injection. The volume of the pleural fluid increased gradually up to 5 h. The effects of treatment with mepyramine, methysergide, captopril, bromelain and indomethacin suggested that the early phase (20 min) of exudation was mediated mainly by kinins, histamine and 5-HT, and that the late phase (3 h) was mediated by prostaglandins (PGs) and possibly kinins. We measured the levels of histamine, kinin and PG in the pleural exudate to verify the involvement of the mediators mentioned above. Intracellular histamine levels decreased markedly and extracellular histamine levels increased significantly 20 min after the induction of kaolin pleurisy. Only threshold levels of kinin were detected after the induction of pleurisy. Captopril treatment, however, increased kinin levels which peaked at 20 min and decreased rapidly thereafter. Levels of 6-keto-PGF1 alpha and thromboxane B2 showed a peak at 20 min, whereas levels of PGE2 increased gradually from 20 min to 5 h. These results indicate that kaolin-induced pleurisy is a kinin-related inflammation and could be used as a model for studying the in vivo interaction of the kallikrein-kinin system and PGs at inflammatory sites.