Role of mast cell histamine in brown adipose tissue thermogenic response to VMH stimulation

Electrical stimulation of the ventromedial hypothalamic area in rats caused a significant but transient increase in interscapular brown adipose tissue temperature. This response was markedly reduced by cimetidine, a histamine H2-receptor antagonist, but not by pyrilamine, an H1-receptor antagonist. Histamine is present in substantial amounts within mast cells in brown adipose tissue as injections of compound 48/80, which cause degranulation of connective tissue mast cells, reduced the tissue histamine content by > 85%. In contrast, histamine content in brown adipose tissue was not affected by loss of sympathetic neural input (with 6-hydroxydopamine) or sensory neural input (with capsaicin). Neither cimetidine nor histamine had any effect on basal and norepinephrine-stimulated rates of O2 consumption by isolated brown adipocytes. These results indicate that histamine released from mast cells acting on H2-receptors may play an important but indirect role in the thermogenic response of brown adipose tissue to stimulation of the ventromedial hypothalamic area.