Fully Automated Enzyme Immunoassay System for the Determination of Activator-specific Histamine Release from Basophils in Whole Blood

Abstract

Histamine release from washed leukocytes and/or whole blood has been extensively utilized for in vitro studies of allergy (1)(2)(3)(4)(5) . It has been shown that when the history and skin test of an individual are positive for a given activator, the probability is very high that the in vitro tests will also be positive for histamine release (6) . Throughout the past 10 years, numerous methods have been developed for the determination of histamine release. The commercially available RIA and enzyme immunoassay (EIA) kits for histamine release are not automated and require the investigator to provide the activators or compounds to be used in stimulating histamine release. This study describes a fully automated basophil histamine release (BHR) EIA method for the determination of histamine in whole blood samples after stimulation of histamine release with various cellular activators available from the manufacturer. The assay is performed on the HY·TECTM System, a fully automated laboratory analyzer with existing methods for allergy and autoimmune diagnostics. All of the components, including the allergen extracts (activators), histamine-coated microtiter plates, buffers, and conjugate, are available from Hycor Biomedical Inc. The HY·TEC BHRTM …