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EXPERIMENTS ON HISTAMINE AS THE CHEMICAL MEDIATOR FOR CUTANEOUS PAIN
1Tice Laboratories of the Chicago Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium, and the Departments of Pathology, Bacteriology and Public Health, and Physiology, University of Illinois College of Medicine, Chicago.
The Journal of Experimental Medicine
|October 30, 2009
Summary
Histamine release from skin stimulation causes pain, even without visible tissue damage. A specific antagonist blocks this pain, confirming histamine
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Dermatology
- Pharmacology
Background:
- Histamine is a key mediator in inflammatory and allergic responses.
- The role of histamine in pain perception, particularly following non-damaging stimuli, requires further elucidation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the liberation of histamine from skin upon stimulation.
- To characterize the pain-inducing substance released from stimulated skin and ocular tissues.
- To confirm the identity of the released substance as histamine and explore its antagonism.
Main Methods:
- Stimulation of upper skin layers and rabbit cornea.
- Recovery and biochemical analysis of the released substance.
- Pharmacological testing using guinea pig intestinal strips and histamine antagonists.
Main Results:
- Histamine is liberated from the skin's upper layers upon threshold stimulation, without apparent tissue damage.
- A histamine-like substance is recoverable from the rabbit cornea upon electrical stimulation, proportional to stimulus intensity.
- The released substance exhibits properties consistent with histamine, including heat stability, neutralization by histaminase, and specific antagonism by thymoxyethyldiethylamine.
Conclusions:
- Histamine release is implicated in pain perception following non-damaging skin and corneal stimulation.
- Thymoxyethyldiethylamine effectively antagonizes histamine-induced pain and lowers skin electrical thresholds.
