The release of histamine / by W.D.M. Paton.

  • William Paton
Date:
1958
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The release of histamine / by W.D.M. Paton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    53/72 page 129
    The chief objection to this is that several workers have tried to demonstrate the formation of a typical histamine liberator during the antigen-antibody reaction and none has succeeded in finding it. But to dismiss the analogy between the histamine liberators and anaphylaxis as a pharmacological coincidence is not satis¬ factory, since the analogies are so striking and since the property of the histamine liberation is so widely distributed. The most plausible hypothesis is probably the one just mentioned, that a histamine liberator is formed in some parts of anaphylactic process, but that it is formed in small amounts and in such close relation¬ ship to the site of the action that it is difficult to detect. An important aspect of the relation between the two processes is the possiblity of mitigating allergic or anaphylactic responses by previous treatment with a histamine releasing agent. It might be suggested, of course, that a previous eliciting of an anaphylactic or allergic response would be the simplest way to protect against subsequent responses. But on the whole, the antigen-antibody reaction is a difficult one to graduate and control, whereas the intensity of reaction produced by histamine releasing substances is simply a matter of grading the dose. Some importance attaches, therefore, to the attempts to mitigate allergic responses by previous administration of a histamine liberator. This has sometimes been successful. Feldberg and Talesnik (1952) were able to reduce the intensity both of the anaphylactoid response to egg albumen and of the photosensitization after treatment with haematoporphyrin in the rat by previous treatment with 48/80. Feinberg et al. (1954) were able by repeated injections of 48/80 in human skin, to develop a local refractoriness to the allergic response to ragweed or grass pollen. The refractoriness developed, however, was about the same as could be obtained with the antigen. Lecomte et al. (1953) were also able to show that treatment of the skin with three liberators, diaminodecane, stilbamidine, or cystinamine, shortly before a tuber¬ culin response was elicited, could greatly reduce it. These drugs had to be given before the tuberculin was injected. If they were given soon after the tuberculin was injected they were much less effective. Unpublished experiments have taken place trying to desensitize a dog to anaphylaxis by previous treatment with 48/80; although it is possible that the symptoms are somewhat mitigated the response is certainly not attenuated far enough to give a useful degree of protection. Herxheimer and Paton (unpublished) have tried
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