Cutaneous histamine metabolism in chronic urticaria

Impaired metabolism of histamine in the skin of patients with chronic idiopathic urticaria (CIU) might explain the observed enhanced and prolonged skin responses to intradermal histamine. Histamine metabolism was measured in homogenates from unaffected forearm skin in nine patients with CIU and in skin of age- and sex-matched control subjects with a radiochromatographic assay, and the results are expressed as nanograms of histamine metabolized per milligram of protein per hour. Endogenous histamine content was determined by RIA. There was a highly significant increase in endogenous histamine content in the skin of patients with urticaria (407.8 +/- 188.3 ng/mg of protein) compared with that in skin of control subjects (240.0 +/- 73.0 ng/mg of protein) (mean +/- 1 SD; p less than 0.02), which suggests either an increase in mast cell number or histamine concentration per cell. No significant difference was observed in the metabolism of histamine between patient and control group; therefore, an alternative mechanism may underlie differences in skin reactivity to histamine.