Abstract
The tissue mast cell is the major storage site of histamine in the body. The present study is concerned with the effect of one histamine H1- and one histamine H2-receptor antagonist on proliferation in the rat mesentery following drug-induced mast-cell secretion. The H2-receptor antagonist, but not the H1-receptor antagonist, significantly suppressed mast-cell-mediated proliferation in vivo and in organ-cultured mesentery. This finding indicates that mast-cell-histamine is a mitogen acting directly on histamine H2-receptors in surrounding tissue cells.