Hyperergy

HYPERERGY, hyperergic (from Greek hyper—excessively and ergon—action), a term used to denote a variety of tissue allergy (see), consisting of a sharp increase, compared to the norm (normergy), in reactive processes in response to one or another irritation; most often it refers to irritants possessing antigenic properties, which brings the concept of hyperergy closer to the concept of local tissue anaphylaxis (see). In its essence, hyperergy represents a peculiar anaphylactic type of inflammation (see). A classic object for the study of hyperergy is the so-called Arthus phenomenon (see Anaphylaxis), which has been developed in detail in recent years by Gerlach; the Pirquet reaction (Pirquet) also belongs here. Hyperergy depends on a number of humoral and cellular, perhaps special physical-chemical, perturbations in tissues arising following appropriate sensitization (e.g., experimentally) or under circumstances not yet known, similar to the phenomenon of idiosyncrasy (see). That hyperergy is connected with tissue changes is proven by experiments on surviving organs, e.g., on the spleen, the follicles of which rapidly undergo necrosis upon repeated passage of antigen through the organ. The development of hyperergy does not require the presence of a nervous connection. It is important that the phenomenon of hyperergy can be prevented by the introduction of colloidal solutions of acid dyes (e.g., Trypan blue) into the tissues; however, only in the case where the dye diffusely imbibes the tissue and does not settle in it (in the cells) in the form of grains. Thus, non-specific in terms of antigenic properties, coloring substances can change the immuno-biological state of tissues in vivo; Möllendorff even asserts that it is possible to morphologically detect certain signs of sensitized tissue, i.e., to speak of their hyperergic readiness. In recent years, the doctrine of hyperergy has found wide application in a number of theories of the pathogenesis of certain diseases, such as: in Ranke's doctrine of tuberculosis, in views on lobar pneumonia, sepsis (see), fulminant forms of acute infections (see Infectious diseases), etc. The doctrine of hyperergy, representing a part of the more extensive doctrine of allergy, leads us out of the narrow framework of bacteriocentric concepts in the understanding of disease processes and introduces the peculiarities of the organism itself into the number of relevant factors. The antipode of the concept of "hyperergy" is anergy, when the reactivity of tissues is sharply reduced or absent.