鮮魚によるヒスタミン中毒について

Abstract

An allergic type of food poisoning broke out in some district of Kagawa Prefecture, Shikoku Island, in November, 1955. The incriminated food was fish broiled with sauce, which had been prepared from a species of fish called karasu in Japanese. The previous report dealt with the results of investigations in which a large quantity of histamine (12 mg per gram of fish broiled with sauce) had been detected from the incriminated food, the symptoms manifested by the patients involved, and the histamine-producing ability of the Morganella organisms isolated from the incriminated food. After that, experiments were performed on the effect of the histamine produced by the isolated Morganella organisms upon guinea pigs, especially changes in the differential blood cell count and the actual count of circulating eosinophils in them. The results obtained from these experiments are summarized as follows.1. When injected intraperitoneally with 3 cc of either histamine, the filtrate of the isolated strain through Seitz filter, or a mixture of histamine and “diphenhydramine hydrochloride, ” guinea pigs showed a sudden decrease in lymphocytes and a sudden increase in neutrophils in differential blood cell counts and a remarkable decrease in actual counts of circulating eosinophils. When the mixture of histamine and “diphenhydramine hydrochloride” was injected, the decrease in the actual counts of eosinophils was relatively a little slow.2. In guinea pigs injected with “diphenhydramine hydrochloride” solution, a decrease in lymphocytes and an increase in neutrophils in number were observed as in those injected with histamine, the Seitz filtrate of the isolated strain, or the mixture of histamine and “diphenhydramine hydrochloride.” The trend of such decrease or increase, however, was slow and the recovery of these cells to their normal numbers was rather rapid. No conspicuous changes were recognized in the actual count of eosinophils.3. In guinea pigs injected with a culture medium to which was added histidine, changes were hardly noticed in lymphocyte and neutrophil leukocyte counts and actual counts of eosinophils.4. In 5 cases examined, there were no distinct changes in the number of monocytes and no definite trend in the fluctuation of white blood cell counts in which some increase or decrease had been observed.