Histamine release by compounds of simple chemical structure / W.D.M. Paton.

  • Paton, William D. M.
Date:
[1957?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Histamine release by compounds of simple chemical structure / W.D.M. Paton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    1/60 (page 269)
    Reprinted from Pharmacological Reviews Vol. 9, No. 2, June, 1957 Printed in U.S.A. HISTAMINE RELEASE BY COMPOUNDS OF SIMPLE CHEMICAL STRUCTURE W. D. M. PATON Department of Pharmacology, Royal College of Surgeons of England, London W .C. 1 Table of Contents I. Introduction. 269 II. Methods of study and criteria of histamine release. 270 III. Experiments on leucocytes and platelets. 281 IV. Experiments on mitochondrial particles. 282 V. Experiments on mast cells. 283 VI. General survey of histamine-releasing substances. 286 VII. The properties of Compound 48/80. 295 VIII. Histamine-releasing agents of natural origin. 298 IX. Variation of histamine release with tissue and species. 300 X. Other substances released by histamine liberators. 301 XI. Antagonists to histamine release. 304 XII. Refractoriness and histamine depletion of tissues. 306 XIII. Effects of histamine liberators in man. 307 XIV. The mechanism of histamine release. 310 XV. Physiological conclusions.*.:. 315 I. INTRODUCTION Several stages mark the development of our knowledge about histamine and its actions in the body. First came its isolation, and the description of its phar¬ macological effects, akin on the one hand to those produced by “shock”, and on the other to certain anaphylactic reactions. Following this came the dis¬ covery that histamine was a constituent of normal tissues, that it was released in sensitization reactions, and that it, or something very like it, was concerned in one of the fundamental responses of the skin—the “triple response” of Thomas Lewis. Along with this went a steadily increasing knowledge of its distribution in the body, and an expanding study of possible roles in control¬ ling the contraction of various smooth muscles or the secretion of gastric juice. A further impetus to this field of study came with the discovery and develop¬ ment of the antihistamines, which allowed, amongst their other uses, an ap¬ proach to the physiology of histamine similar to that provided, for instance, by the use of atropine in unravelling autonomic physiology. But despite this accumulating experience, to which knowledge about histamine metabolism was also added, histamine still remained somewhat of a physiological puzzle—a highly active and widely distributed tissue constituent to which no physiologi¬ cal role could be attributed with certainty. A new approach became possible when means became available for reducing the amounts of histamine in the tissues by the substances now known as hista¬ mine liberators or histamine releasers. It is true that substances capable of freeing histamine from its attachment in mammalian tissues have long been known. But these had been for the most part materials such as venoms, pro-