HISTAMINE AND RELATED COMPOUNDS IN URTICARIA PIGMENTOSA: ANALYSES OF TISSUES HAVING MAST-CELL INFILTRATION

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Tissue from the liver and spleen of a child with urticaria pigmentosa have been analyzed chemically for histamine and related compounds. Both tissues were infiltrated with mast cells. Trichloroacetic acid extracts of tissue from the liver of the child with urticaria pigmentosa were chromatogaphed on paper. Histamine was demonstrated as a double-spot formation similar to that described by previous workers who have chromatographed histamine-rich tissues. The histamine was present in the tissue in several hundred times the normal concentration, and exceeded the values for human tissue reported in the available literature. No serotonin could be detected in these human mast cells, a finding in contrast with previous reports of increased serotonin content in rodent mast cells, and in agreement with the findings of Sjoerdsma et al. who could find no serotonin in skin from a patient with urticaria pigmentosa. Our studies suggest that the decarboxylation of 5-hydroxytryptophan to serotonin does not take place in the human mast cell. Instead the accumulation of compounds such as 5-hydroxytryptophan, kynurenine or hydroxylated kynurenine may take place. There was no increase in xanthine oxidase activity. Acetone extracts of tissue from the liver were made and the residues chromatographed. In addition to histamine, there were noted three substances of unknown structure resembling tryptophane and/or its metabolites. Chemical evidence suggesting the presence of large amounts of a substance resembling mucoitin sulfuric acid (? heparin) in this tissue was obtained. The possible relationship of such compounds to the biochemical error in urticaria pigmentosa is briefly considered. There are at present no data to indicate whether the enzymatic defect is primary to the intermediary catabolism of histamine or of heparin.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: