Release of histamine from skin and muscle in the cat by opium alkaloids and other histamine liberators / by W. Feldberg and W.D.M. Paton.
- Wilhelm Feldberg
- Date:
- [1951?]
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Release of histamine from skin and muscle in the cat by opium alkaloids and other histamine liberators / by W. Feldberg and W.D.M. Paton. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![[Reprinted from the Journal of Physiology, 1951, Yol. 114, No. 4, p. 490.] PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN J . Physiol. (1951) 114, 490-5^9 RELEASE OF HISTAMINE FROM SKIN AND MUSCLE IN THE CAT BY OPIUM ALKALOIDS AND OTHER HISTAMINE LIBERATORS By W. FELDBERG and W. D. M. PATON From the National Institute for Medical Research, Mill Hill, London, N.W. 7 (.Received 5 February 1951) A number of widely different chemical compounds have the common property of releasing histamine from mammalian tissue without producing gross structural change (Macintosh & Paton, 1949; Paton, 1951). These substances were called ;histamine liberators’. The present experiments are a continuation of their work and deal in the main with two new aspects of this subject. It has been shown that the opium alkaloids and the morphine derivative, apomorphine, have to be added to the class of histamine liberators. Furthermore, an identification of the tissues from which the histamine is released was begun. It was found in perfusion experiments that, in cats at least, histamine is released from muscles and skin by histamine liberators. The possibility that morphine and other opium alkaloids release histamine was considered but rejected in 1917 by Sollman & Pilcher. Later however, Lewis (1927), found that strong concentrations of morphine pricked into the human skin elicited the triple response, and therefore concluded that morphine caused the release of histamine or H-substance in the human skin. Evidence for the release of histamine by opium alkaloids was obtained independently at the same time by Nasmyth & Stewart, and their results as well as ours were shortly reported to the Physiological Society (Nasmyth & Stewart, 1949; Feldberg & Paton, 1949). A short account of the release of histamine from the perfused skin by various histamine liberators has also been communicated by us to the International Physiological Congress (Feldberg & Paton, 1950). METHODS All experiments were done on cats anaesthetized with chloralose. In those experiments in which the blood pressure was recorded, a mercury manometer was connected to a siliconed cannula tied into the carotid artery; clotting was prevented by the addition of heparin in the cannula. When samples of Dlasma were required, blood was withdrawn from the femoral artery into a heparinized syringe and at once centrifuged. The routine assays of histamine were done on the guinea-pig’s ileum preparation suspended in a 15 ml. bath of Tyrode solution at 35° C. The values for histamine are expressed as base, but the doses of the liberators refer to the following salts: propamidine isethionate, D-tubocurarine chloride, morphine sulphate, apomorphine chloride, thebaine chloride, codiene sulphate, papaverine chloride, antrycide methylsulphate, compound 48/80 from](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30633321_0001.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
