Measurement of histamine-releasing factor activity in individual nasal washings: relationship with atopy, basophil response, and membrane-bound IgE.

We collected individual pools of nasal washings (NWs) from 15 allergic and 15 nonallergic subjects to determine histamine-releasing factor (HRF) activity and to ascertain the relationship of these cytokines with atopic status, basophil releasability, and cell membrane-bound IgE. NWs were concentrated, dialyzed, and assayed with basophils from a single donor. Samples from 12 of 15 allergic subjects and from all the nonallergic subjects revealed greater than or equal to 15% histamine release (HR), 33.5% +/- 21.3% (mean +/- SD) and 38.6% +/- 19.6%, respectively (p greater than 0.05). When we assayed the same samples with autologous basophils, the allergic group demonstrated higher HR than the nonallergic group (31.9% +/- 19.7% versus 4.8% +/- 4.3%; p less than 0.001). A standard lot of mononuclear cell-derived HRFs was also screened with basophils from both groups. Means for HR from basophils of allergic and nonallergic subjects were 51.9% +/- 16.7% versus 26.3% +/- 8.2%, respectively (p less than 0.001). Pretreatment of basophils with lactic acid led to abrogation of sensitivity to HRF. Acid-stripped cells incubated with sera from patients with asthma regained their capacity to release histamine. We found that HRF activity can be detected in NWs of most donors, and there is no difference among allergic and nonallergic subjects. Our results suggest that the capacity of these cytokines to induce HR depends on several factors: atopic status, basophil releasability, and membrane-bound IgE.

Comparative effect of recombinant IL-1, -2, -3, -4, and -6, IFN-gamma, granulocyte-macrophage-colony-stimulating factor, tumor necrosis factor-alpha, and histamine-releasing factors on the secretion of histamine from basophils.

Most cytokines possess multiple biologic activities. This study was undertaken to investigate the effect of rIL-1 beta, -2, -3, -4 and -6, IFN-gamma, TNF-alpha, and granulocyte-macrophage (GM)-CSF on basophils from 16 donors and the amount of histamine released was compared with that by partially purified mononuclear cell-derived histamine-releasing factor (HRF) and anti-IgE. We found that only IL-3 and GM-CSF at relatively high doses (50 to 500 ng/ml) released small amounts of histamine (3 to 14%) from two allergic donors. In contrast, both HRF and anti-IgE released significant amounts of histamine from all donors. Other cytokines did not release any measurable quantity of histamine. Simultaneous addition of several cytokines to the basophils also failed to release histamine. IL-3, GM-CSF, and IL-1 can also release histamine at lower concentrations (less than 5 ng/ml) when incubated with basophils in the presence of D2O. Basophils from 6 out of 13 allergic donors released histamine in response to IL-3, whereas three donors responded to IL-1 beta and two responded to GM-CSF. The results of this study demonstrated that although IL-3 and GM-CSF release small amounts of histamine only from a select group of allergic patients, mononuclear cell-derived HRF is more potent in their action and release histamine from normals as well as allergic patients.