Elevated CSF histamine levels in multiple sclerosis patients

Ulf Kallweit; Kosuke Aritake; Claudio L Bassetti; Stephan Blumenthal; Osamu Hayaishi; Michael Linnebank; Christian R Baumann; Yoshihiro Urade

doi:10.1186/2045-8118-10-19

Elevated CSF histamine levels in multiple sclerosis patients

Fluids Barriers CNS. 2013 May 9:10:19. doi: 10.1186/2045-8118-10-19. eCollection 2013.

Authors

Ulf Kallweit¹, Kosuke Aritake², Claudio L Bassetti¹, Stephan Blumenthal³, Osamu Hayaishi², Michael Linnebank¹, Christian R Baumann¹, Yoshihiro Urade²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurology, University Hospital Zurich, Frauenklinikstrasse 26, 8091 Zurich, CH, Switzerland.
² Department of Molecular Behavioral Biology, Osaka Bioscience Institute, Osaka, Japan.
³ Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Medicine, Triemli Hospital, Zurich, CH, Switzerland.

Abstract

Background: Histamine is an ubiquitous inflammatory mediator of numerous physiological processes. Histamine and its receptors have been implicated in multiple sclerosis (MS) disease pathogenesis. We prospectively enrolled 36 MS patients and 19 age and gender-matched healthy volunteers for cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) histamine analysis.

Findings: CSF HISTAMINE LEVELS IN MS PATIENT SAMPLES WERE SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER (MEDIAN: 35.6 pg/ml) than in controls (median: 5.5 pg/ml; Beta = 0.525, p < 0.001). In addition, histamine increased with age (Pearson's correlation, p < 0.003).

Conclusions: Histamine may be an important factor for both the initiation and maintenance of chronic inflammatory diseases of the central nervous system. Our observation encourages a deeper investigation of the role of histamine in MS.

Keywords: CSF; Chronic inflammatory diseases; Granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor; Histamine; Histamine receptors; Multiple sclerosis.