Basophil histamine release in allergic and non-allergic patient populations

摘要

In Denmark most children have an early encounter with histamine, in the guise of the itching wheals that appear after touching the serrated leaves of the nettle, Urtica. Endogenous histamine was found to be present within the granules of mast cells, so termed because of the "well-fed" appearance of this tissue-resident cell type (Ehrlich 1879). The rapid release of the contents of mast cell granules after appropriate stimulation provided an attractive model for the appearance of the urticarial reaction (Fawcett 1955). Furthermore, the capacity for developing an urticarial skin reaction after exposure to certain substances, was found by Prausnitz and Kuestner to be transferable by serum (Prausnitz & Kiistner 1921). The serum activity responsible for the Prausnitz-Kuestner activity was found to reside with a novel antibody class, IgND or IgE in serum of allergic patients (Johansson 1967, Stanworth et al. 1967, Ishizaka et al. 1967) and in patients with parasite infection (Johansson et al. 1968). A small proportion of the leukocytes in peripheral blood also possess metachromatically staining granules similar to those of the mast cell. These basophil granulocytes were demonstrated to contain almost all histamine present in the cellular elements of blood (Ishizaka et al. 1972). In analogy with the mast cell, the basophil granu-locyte binds IgE with high affinity to specific surface receptors and responds to cross-linkage of these receptors by release of the granular contents (Zucker-Franklin 1967, Conroy et al. 1977, Ishizaka & Ishizaka 1984).