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Regulation of human basophil activation. III. Impairment of the inhibitory effect of Na+ on IgE-mediated histamine release in patients with allergic rhinitis

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Abstract

We recently observed that external Na+ inhibited the IgE-dependent human basophil histamine release (HR) in normal subjects. In this article we report differences in the Na+ effect on basophil HR between normal subjects (n = 16) and age matched patients with allergic rhinitis (AR) (n = 18). As expected, in vitro anti-IgE-stimulated basophils from the group with AR released greater amounts of histamine than basophils from the normal group. However, removal of external Na+ (and replacement by N-methyl-D-glucamine) abolished this difference between the two groups. HR in the normal group increased to the same high level as that of the group with AR. By contrast, the release of histamine in the group with AR was not further increased by Na+ removal. Although high releasers were more frequent in the group with AR, the absence of effect after Na+ removal was not due to the high basal release level (in the presence of Na+) because no effect after Na+ removal was also observed with medium releasers. These results strongly suggest that increased basophil HR in populations with AR, and possibly in other allergic populations, is linked to a defect in the inhibitory effect of Na+.
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... After removal of Na + from extracellular medium, basophils from normal subjects acquire the capacity to release histamine on challenge with a weak agonist, such as interleukin-3 (IL-3) [15]. The inhibitory effect of Na + is altered in patients with allergic rhinitis [16], and this impairment coexists with an enhanced releasability. Furthermore, a defect in Na + metabolism and Na + transport across biological membranes in allergic patients has been postulated by some authors [17][18][19]. ...
... It has been demonstrated that Na + downregulates IgEmediated histamine release from basophils of healthy subjects [12,13] and that the inhibitory effect of Na + is impaired in patients with allergic rhinitis [16]. The present results indicate that the defective inhibition of Na + is present in allergics (both patients with allergic rhinitis and asthmatics), and that it concerns basophil histamine release induced by IgE-dependent (anti-IgE) and IgE-independent (FMLP, IL-3) stimuli. ...
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The aim of this study was to evaluate whether Na+ exerts its inhibi- tory effect on basophil histamine release induced by immunoglobulin E (IgE)- dependent (anti-IgE) and IgE-independent (N-formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine (FMLP), interleukin-3 (IL-3)) stimuli in patients with allergic rhinitis (n=24) and allergic bronchial asthma (n=10). Peripheral blood leucocytes were stimulated with anti-IgE, FMLP and IL-3 in the presence of high and low Na+ concentrations, and histamine release was mea- sured using a fluorometric method. In standard Na+-containing medium, spontaneous and stimulated histamine release was higher in allergic patients (n=34) (both rhinitic and asthmatic) than in healthy subjects (n=41). Na+ removal from extracellular medium and its isosmotic substitution with choline chloride or with N-methyl-D-glucamine led to a signifi- cant increase of anti-IgE-, FMLP- and IL-3-induced histamine release in normal subjects, but not in allergic patients. The increase in Na+ concentration in the extra- cellular medium was accompanied by a dose-dependent decrease of anti-IgE- and FMLP-induced histamine release in normal subjects, but not in allergic patients. The behaviour of atopics and healthy subjects was different and not related to the basophil responsiveness to activating signals. The incubation of basophils from healthy subjects with sera from allergic patients did not have a significant influ- ence on the inhibitory effect of Na+.
... To answer this question, new investigations were performed in experimental conditions where the effect of Na+ removal on the basal anti-IgE-induced release had been eliminated. Indeed, we previously observed that anti-IgE-induced histamine release from basophils of a group of atopic subjects was not increased after Na+ removal [16]. Using basophils from such subjects, we observed that (i) IL-3 increased histamine release from these basophils (from 42 5 + 8-6% to 72-9 + 7-7%; n = 5) and (ii) IL-3-increased release was abolished in low Na+ medium (from 42-0 + 7-8% to 44-6 + 5.6%) (Fig. 2). ...
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The release of mediators from human basophils is strongly enhanced by IL-3. However, the signalling pathways of IL-3 are poorly defined in these cells. Since external Ca2+ and Na+ play important regulating roles in histamine release, the possibility that these cations could be involved in the potentiation by IL-3 of the anti-IgE-induced histamine release from human basophils was considered, and it was observed that: (i) IL-3 dramatically decreased the external Ca2+ requirement for IgE-mediated histamine release. However, histamine release from IL-3-treated basophils became only partially independent of external Ca2+, since addition of EGTA in the external medium abolished the effect of IL-3; (ii) decreasing Na+ influx by lowering external Na+ concentration in isosmotic medium inhibited the potentiating effect of IL-3 on IgE-mediated release; (iii) amiloride, an inhibitor of Na+/Ca2+ and Na+/H+ exchanges, and its derivative, benzamil, more specific for Na+/Ca2+ exchanges, inhibited the release potentiated by IL-3. In contrast, the amiloride derivative 5-(N,N-dimethyl)-amiloride, more specific for Na+/H+ exchanges, slightly increased the IL-3-enhanced release. Thus, the decreased requirement for external Ca2+ and the dependence on external Na+, taken with the effect of the Na+/Ca2+ exchange inhibitors, suggest that Na+/Ca2+ exchanges are involved in the IL-3-induced enhancement of IgE-mediated human basophil histamine release.
... It has been demonstrated that Na + downregulates IgEmediated histamine release from basophils of healthy subjects [12, 13] and that the inhibitory effect of Na + is impaired in patients with allergic rhinitis [16]. The present results indicate that the defective inhibition of Na + is present in allergics (both patients with allergic rhinitis and asthmatics), and that it concerns basophil histamine release induced by IgE-dependent (anti-IgE) and IgE-independent (FMLP, IL-3) stimuli. ...
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