Immunological release of histamine from human lung. II. Studies on acetylcholine and the anticholinergic agent...

The experiments reported in this work have been performed to measure the effects of acetylcholine and the anticholinergic agent ipratropium bromide on the antigen-induced release of histamine from sensitized human lung in vitro. Primarily, ipratropium bromide did not have any effect, even at higher concentrations. Acetylcholine at a concentration of 1 x 10(-7)M increased the antigen-induced release of histamine by approximately 41%. When the lung tissue was treated with ipratropium bromide before acetylcholine, the competitive inhibition of the cholinergic receptor almost completely abolished this acetylcholine-induced increase of histamine release. Therefore, in our opinion, anticholinergic agents are primarily useful in vagus-controlled chronic obstructive ventilatory disorders; they are of secondary importance in allergic bronchial asthma.