Human Leukocyte Histamine Release Assays with Whole Ragweed and Alternaria Antigens Using Technicon Autoanalyzer II

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Abstract
A simple and commercially available automated technique for fluorometric analysis of histamine is described. It is applicable to histamine release experiments utilizing washed leukocytes, and analyzes 15 samples/h at histamine concentrations 1-1000 ng/ml with a mean variance between 0.5-18%. This technique is applied to a cross sectional study of leukocytes from 14 ragweed sensitive patients (7 on and 7 off immunotherapy) and 5 normals. It was also applied to 17 Alternaria-sensitive patients (4 on and 12 off immunotherapy) in addition to 6 normals. While antigen induced in histamine release clearly separated the sensitive group from the normals, it did not correlate with immunotherapy, and a considerable variation was seen in the sensitive patients of both the treated and untreated groups.