Histamine

Histamine (β-imidazole-ethylamine) a biogenic amine, is a product of the histidine metabolism. It is produced by decarboxylation of histidine.

Histamine is widely distributed in mammalian tissues. It’s bound to heparin (as inactive form) and stored in the granules of basophilic leukocytes and mast cells and is actively released as required. These cells, if sensitized by IgE antibodies attached to their membranes, degranulate when exposed to the appropriate antigen.

Histamine plays a major rule in the initial phase of an anaphylactic reaction. The quantification of histamine in plasma after allergen administration is of clinical interest. Histamine is part of the immune response to foreign pathogens and it increases the permeability of the capillaries to white blood cells and other proteins, in order to allow them to engage foreign invaders in the affected tissues. Responsible for the biological effects of histamine in tissue are the activation of different surface receptors, for instance H1, H2 and H3. Histamine is involved in the regulating physiological function in the gut and acting as a neurotransmitter.

The competitive Histamine ELISA kit uses the microtitre plate format. Histamine is bound to the solid phase of the microtiter plate. Acylated histamine and solid phase bound histamine compete for a fixed number of antiserum binding sites. When the system is in equilibrium, free antigen and free antigen-antiserum complexes are removed by washing. The antibody bound to the solid phase histamine is detected by antirabbit/peroxidase. The substrate TMB / peroxidase reaction is monitored at 450 nm. The amount of antibody bound to the solid phase histamine is inversely proportional to the histamine concentration of the sample.

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