On the mechanism of histamine-induced bronchodilation in conscious guinea-pigs.

The bronchodilatory effect of histamine was evaluated in a conscious guinea-pig model of cholinergically mediated bronchoconstriction. The H1, bronchoconstrictor, property of histamine was masked using high doses of the H1-antagonist chlorpheniramine (30 mg/kg), and the bronchodilatory activity evaluated by observing the increase in latency to collapse induced by aerosol methacholine. Under these conditions, histamine (1.0, 3.0 or 10.0 mg/kg, i.p.) delayed methacholine-induced collapse in a dose-dependent manner. Cimetidine, an H2-receptor antagonist (10 to 100 mg/kg), did not delay collapse either in the presence or absence of an H1-antagonist. However, when cimetidine was administered prior to histamine, the bronchodilatory activity of histamine was abolished. A similar abolition of histamine bronchodilation was observed if propranolol, a beta-adrenoceptor antagonist, was administered prior to histamine. Propranolol alone had no effect on methacholine-induced bronchospasm. These data suggest that the major bronchodilatory property of histamine may be mediated indirectly via catecholamine release through an H2-receptor mechanism.