Uptake, disposition and metabolism of histamine in isolated heart preparations

Abstract

Summary1. The uptake and metabolism of histamine by the guinea-pig heart and by the isolated electrically driven guinea-pig left atria was studied with both labelled and unlabelled histamine. 2. Histamine uptake took place against a concentration gradient and, at low concentrations, this was blocked by hypoxia plus glucose deprivation or by a toxic dose of ouabain. 3. The histamine taken up was retained by cardiac tissues and mainly metabolized into methyl-histamine and other metabolites. The uptake and metabolism of histamine was higher in atria than in ventricles thus reflecting the regional distribution of endogenous histamine and mast cell numbers. 4. The uptake and metabolism of histamine were greatly reduced in hearts which had been depleted of mast cells, by combining cardiac anaphylaxis and (+)-tubocurarine (1 mg/ml), but pretreatment of guinea-pigs with 6-hydroxydopamine failed to affect uptake of total radioactivity in the isolated left atria. 5. In the guinea-pig heart histamine appears to be taken up, stored and metabolized in at least two pools, one of which is linked to the mast cells.

Cardiac release of histamine after ventricular fibrillation and defibrillation during insertion of implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICD)

“…The systemic histamine levels may have been increased before start of the procedure due to anaesthesia, as morphine, thiopental, and vancuronium induce release of histamine [23]. Before ventricular fibrillation the arterial histamine level was higher than that in the coronary sinus, confirming previous observations that histamine is taken up in the human coronary circulation [8], as in all other mammals investigated [7]. We do not have a good explanation for why arterial histamine decreased 5 rain after fibrillation.…”

“…Histamine is normally taken up by the heart [7,8], but is released after experimental ischaemia-reperfusion injury in several species [9,10,11]. Myocardial infarction increases plasma levels of histamine in humans [12,13].…”

INTERACTION OF HISTAMINE H1‐ AND H2‐RECEPTOR ANTAGONISTS WITH HISTAMINE UPTAKE AND METABOLISM BY GUINEA‐PIG ISOLATED ATRIUM AND MOUSE NEOPLASTIC MAST CELLS in vitro

“…The preparations were stimulated electrically (0.5 ms duration; twice threshold voltage; 2 Hz) and contractions were recorded with a BattagliaRangoni polygraph. After an equilibration period, the atria were perfused either with [14CJ -histamine or with [14CJ -histamine plus various concentrations of drugs over a period of 30 min, and then washed for 10 min to remove extracellular histamine (Mannaioni & Moroni, 1973).…”

“…The experiments were carried out on guinea-pig atria and mouse neoplastic mast cells, in an attempt to differentiate between the effects of triprolidine, chlorpheniramine, burimamide and metiamide in preparations in which the accumulation of histamine is mainly due to uptake (mast cells: Moroni, Buiatti & Mannaioni, 1972), or to uptake and metabolism (isolated atrium: Mannaioni & Moroni, 1973).…”