BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Histamine and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2 ), directly and via their effects on other cells, regulate the behaviour of vascular smooth muscle (VSM), but their effects on human VSM are incompletely resolved. EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH The effects of PGE2 on histamine-evoked changes in intracellular free Ca(2+) concentration ([Ca(2+) ]i ) and adenylyl cyclase activity were measured ...

Central histaminergic neurons have been implicated in the control of oxytocin (OT) secretion in various physiological conditions, including parturition and lactation. The present studies investigated whether histamine also influences the central intranuclear release of OT, which is known to be important in the activation of OT neurons, and the possible interaction of histamine with norepinephri...

Histamine is a key mediator in allergic diseases, where it exerts most of its effects through the H1 receptor and to a less extent the H2 receptor. H1antihistamines provide rapid relief of many of the allergic symptoms and are considered the main stay of treatment of allergic rhinoconjunctivitis and urticaria. H1 antihistamines comprise first generation (old) and second generation (new) H 1 ant...

Drugs with antihistamine action are the most commonly prescribed medication in daily dermatologic practice, both to adults and children. This article addresses new concepts of the role of histamine receptors (H1 receptors) and discusses the anti-inflammatory effects of these drugs. Second generation antihistamines differs from first generation because of their high specificity and affinity for ...

We used television microscopy and an image-splitting technique to monitor the changes in diameter produced by histamine applied locally to mouse pial arterioles in vivo. A high dose (50 micrograms/ml, 3 X 10(-4) M) of histamine constricted the arterioles, whereas lower doses (20 and 10 micrograms/ml) relaxed them. Constriction was blocked and dilation occurred when selective injury of the endot...

Effects of histamine per se along with its specific agonists and antagonists were studied on the skin melanophores of Hemidactylus flaviviridis to study the role of histamine receptors in pigmentation. Histamine and 2-methyl histamine induced powerful melanin aggregation effects, leading to paling of the skin through stimulation of H1 receptors. On the other hand, 4-methyl histamine, a specific...

One of the common side effects of antihistamine medicines is xerostomia (dry mouth). The current consensus is that antihistamine-induced xerostomia comes from an antimuscarinic effect. Although the effect of antihistamines on salivary secretion is both obvious and significant, the cellular mechanism whereby this happens is still unclear because of the lack of knowledge of histamine signaling in...

In human aortic smooth muscle cells, prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) stimulates adenylyl cyclase (AC) and attenuates the increase in intracellular free Ca2+ concentration evoked by activation of histamine H1 receptors. The mechanisms are not resolved. We show that cAMP mediates inhibition of histamine-evoked Ca2+ signals by PGE2 Exchange proteins activated by cAMP were not required, but the effects wer...

[3H]Doxepin, a tricyclic antidepressant, binds with high affinity to guinea pig brain membranes with a drug specificity indicating an association with H1 histamine receptors. The [3H]doxepin binding site has been solubilized, with digitonin being the only detergent able to maintain specific binding after solubilization. After solubilization, the kinetics and drug specificity of binding are virt...

The histamine H4 receptor (H4R) was first noted as a sequence in genomic databases that had features of a class A G-protein coupled receptor. This putative receptor was found to bind histamine consistent with its homology to other histamine receptors and thus became the fourth member of the histamine receptor family. Due to the previous success of drugs that target the H1 and H2 receptors, an e...