Experimental toxic and allergic contact dermatitis: I. A chemical study of histamine content

Abstract

1. 1. Histamine determinations at the sites of allergic dermatitis and toxic dermatitis demonstrate that excessively high levels of histamine are specifically associated with the allergic response (contact dermatitis) but not with the primary inflammatory response (toxic dermatitis). 2. 2. The histamine increase in toxic dermatitis is attributed to the number of infiltrating cells, whereas it is assumed that the excessive histamine accumulation in allergic dermatitis is due to the capacity of the infiltrating mononuclears, upon minute stimulation with antigen, to activate the histamine metabolism. The latter assumption is supported by the result of an experiment with germanin, an inhibitor of decarboxylation of l-histidine into histamine. 3. 3. The role of histamine in the allergic dermatitis seems to be that of an accelerator of the repair process rather than of a causal factor.