Regulation of cellular histamine content by modulators of glucose metabolism

¹ Department of Pharmacology, The George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, D. C.

When rabbits are anesthetized with ether, both their total platelet histamine (TPH) and number of circulating platelets (PC) decline, then rise, then fall again. Splenectomy abolishes the rise indicating that this represents a splenic response to the ether anesthesia. The loss of TPH is greater than platelet loss signifying that histamine release occurs during ether anesthesia. Histamine release and the splenic response are prevented by pretreating animals with phenoxybenzamine, suggesting that epinephrine causes both of these effects. Glucose, infused into splenectomized or phenoxybenzamine-treated animals, causes changes in TPH and PC without loss of platelet histamine, demonstrating that elevated blood glucose, or insulin released in response to this, plays a role in the conservation of platelet histamine. The results extend previous in vitro observations to the intact animal with respect to the relation of epinephrine and insulin through glucose to platelet histamine content. They add further impetus to the concept that cellular histamine content is regulated by physiologic mechanisms which serve other homeostatic functions in living cells.

Key Words: anesthesia • epinephrine • ether • insulin • phenoxybenzamine • platelets • rabbit • in vivo

Submitted on March 27, 1964