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Metabolic Studies of Guinea Pig Basophilic Leukocytes in Short-Term Tissue Culture

I. Measurement of Histamine-Synthesizing Capacity by Using an Isotopic-Thin Layer Chromatographic Assay¹

Departments of Pathology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02114

Abstract

Mature circulating guinea pig basophils, purified to comprise 25% or more of leukocytes, have been successfully maintained in short-term tissue culture for up to 72 hr. These cells were found to retain the ability to synthesize histamine, as assayed by a new isotopic-thin layer chromatographic assay which can reliably detect as little as 0.5 pg of ³H-histamine.

Cell-associated, newly synthesized histamine was detectable as early as 1 hr of culture, was substantially increased at 6 hr, and reached maximal levels at 24 hr, when it accounted for approximately 6.5% of total cell histamine. Newly synthesized histamine was still detectable at 48 and 72 hr of culture. Histamine synthesis was decreased by lowering the concentration of histidine in the culture medium, and was markedly reduced by all of the specific histidine decarboxylase (HDC)³ inhibitors tested, but not by -methyl-DOPA, pyrilamine maleate, or metiamide. Increasing the concentration of pyridoxal phosphate, the HDC coenzyme, above that normally present in culture medium resulted in only an equivocal increase in the amount of newly synthesized histamine, whereas aminoguanidine, an inhibitor of histaminase, had no detectable effect. Uptake of exogenous histamine by cultured basophils was trivial compared to histamine synthesis.

Both newly synthesized and previously manufactured, nonisotopic, histamine seemed to be stored in the same pool, as the same proportion of both was released by concanavalin A (Con A). Cellular histamine was largely conserved, with little or no spontaneous release into the medium of detectable isotopic or nonisotopic histamine.

These techniques provide a model for studying granulocyte metabolic processes in vitro, and should assist in the direct investigation of a variety of their physiologic functions.

Footnotes

¹ This work was supported by United States Public Health Service Grants AI-09529 and CA-15136 and by American Cancer Society Grant IM-44.

³ Abbreviations used in this paper: HDC, histidine decarboxylase; TCA, trichloroacetic acid; dpm, disintegrations per minute; TLC, thin layer chromatography.

² Trainee, United States Public Health Service Grant GM-2212.

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