Histamine and granulocytes in the umbilical cord blood of infants at birth

Abstract

Summary Histamine levels in whole blood and plasma from the umbilical arteries and veins, together with circulating basophil and eosinophil counts, were determined in two groups of healthy infants, “term” and “pre‐term”. No significant arteriovenous differences were found except in the basophil counts of the “pre‐term” group. This result was consistent with the finding of significant arteriovenous correlations for all these sets of estimations except the basophil counts in the “pre‐term” group. No significant differences were found between the mean values in either group except for the difference between the mean basophil counts for venous blood. Plasma histamine levels (arterial and venous) were usually less than the lowest limit of the method (1.8 ng/ml). Very small amounts of histamine were detected, however, in one venous and one arterial specimen in the “pre‐term” group, but these did not produce a significant difference between the levels for the two groups of infants.

Effects of vasoactive autacoids on the human umbilical‐fetal placental vasculature

“…of 5-hydroxytryptamine and bradykinin in concentrations similar to those found necessary to cause contraction of the vein in our experiments and the isolated umbilical artery by others (Park et al 1972;Tulenko 1979;Altura et al 1972). Histamine, PGF,,, PGE, and angiotensin I1 appear less likely to make direct extracellular contributions to closure since the concentration of each requir d to cause vascular spasm was at least one orde L f magnitude greater than that found in umbilical blood (Mitchell & Porter 1970;Craft et af. 1973;Pipkin & Smales 1975;Mackenzie et al 1980).…”

Regulation of Human Umbilical Artery Contractility By Different Serotonin and Histamine Receptors

“…5,6 The basal concentrations of these 2 substances in the umbilical artery blood of normal pregnant women during gestation are around 50 ng/mL for histamine and 5 ng/mL for 5-HT. 7,8 However, several authors described that preeclampsia is associated with increase in histamine and 5-HT release and in the sensitivity of the HUA to these mediators, which can lead to increase of vascular resistance. [9][10][11][12] Thus, 5-HT and histamine can regulate the HUA tone and are involved in some pathological processes that disturb umbilical circulation.…”

Effect of Histamine on Human Placental Chorionic Veins: Interaction with Serotonin

“…This study demon strates that histamine is able to constrict human chorionic veins at concentrations of more than 10-7 mol/1. However, it is worth pointing out that, at term, human cord blood contains histamine in the 5 X 10~8 molar range [16]; these values are lower than those needed for threshold contractile effects. The potentiation between histamine and seroto nin, observed in this preparation ( fig.…”