[Histamine as the principal pathogenetic factor in gastroduodenal ulcer. Research priorities]

A research group led by L. Businco between 1937 and 1942 was able, by applying new measuring methods in a variety of experimental situations, to demonstrate for the first time a concrete pathogenetic link between histamine and gastroduodenal ulcer. These personal researches produced the following objective data: increase in blood histamine in more than 70% of patients with ulcers; presence of histamine in the gastric juice of ulcer patients; diminution of blood histamine after gastric resection; increase in blood histamine in patients with postoperative peptic ulcer; increase in tissue histamine in ulcerous zones; diminution in blood histamine, parallel clinical improvement and contemporaneous diminution in total and hydrochloric acidity in patients treated with histaminase. The discover by Black et al of cimetidine as an antagonist of H2 receptors to which is added the gastric secretory stimulus of histamine, underscores the role played by this substance in determining gastroduodenal ulcer.