The utilization of adenosine triphosphate in rat mast cells during histamine release induced by anaphylactic reaction and compound 48/80.

The ATP content of rat peritoneal mast cells has been studied in relation to histamine release induced by compound 48/80 and antigen-antibody (anaphylactic) reaction in vitro. When the ATP content of actively sensitized mast cells was reduced to different levels by oligomycin, a good correlation was obtained between the ATP levels and the amounts of histamine released by the anaphylactic reaction. A similar linear relation has previously been demonstrated between the ATP levels of mast cells and histamine release induced by compound 48/80. The ATP content of mast cells was also studied at different intervals after the exposure of the cells to antigen or compound 48/80. No significant change in the ATP content was observed in untreated mast cells during the short period when histamine release occurs. If, however, the mast cells were preincubated with oligomycin or 2-deoxyglucose to reduce the rate of ATP synthesis while a large part of the histamine release remained unaffected-a decrease in the ATP content could be demonstrated in close time relation to both anaphylactic and compound 48/80-induced histamine release. The observations indicate an increased utilization of ATP in mast cells during the release process.