Histamine is one of the major mediators implicated in the physiopathol
ogy of allergy. On vascular endothelium, histamine mainly induces earl
y effects: an increase in vasopermeability leading to oedema, a releas
e of lipid mediators and a transient expression of P-selectin. The aim
of this study was to evaluate the effects of histamine on adhesion mo
lecule expression and IL-6 production by human endothelial cells. Hist
amine did not modulate the expression of intercellular adhesion molecu
le-1 (ICAM-1), vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) and E-select
in, but induced a transient expression of P-selectin as previously rep
orted. In addition, histamine increased in a dose- (from 10(-5) to 10(
-3) M) and time- (from 4 h to 24 h) dependent fashion the IL-6 synthes
is by endothelial cells. Tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha)-indu
ced IL-6 production was also potentiated in a dose-dependent manner by
histamine, without modification of the time course of IL-6 secretion.
Moreover, this increase of IL-6 production induced by histamine was i
nhibited in a dose-dependent manner by H1 and H2 histamine receptor an
tagonists (50% inhibition of IL-6 production at 5 x 10(-4) M and 4 x 1
0(-5) M, respectively). So, histamine induces, besides already well kn
own effects, a late stimulation of endothelial cells, i.e. the product
ion of IL-6.