| Abstract: | The pharmacologic effects of histamine and isoproterenol (autacoids) were studied on clones of murine T helper (TH) and natural suppressor (NS) cells. The data are consistent with receptors for the autacoids being nonrandomly distributed on phenotypically and functionally distinct clones. The effects of histamine on IL 2 secretion by TH cells could be either inhibitory or stimulatory, depending on the conditions of incubation with the autacoid. When TH cells were pretreated with histamine, their secretion of IL 2 was augmented; conversely, if histamine was added to the TH cells in the presence of antigen, IL 2 secretion was inhibited. The suppressor function of NS cells was enhanced by preincubation with histamine (10(-4) M) for 4 hr before the washed NS cells were added to responder and stimulator cells in mixed lymphocyte cultures. Two H1 receptor antagonists, mepyramine (10(-6) M) and pyrobutamine (10(-7) M), each competitively blocked the histamine activation of the NS cells, but an H2 receptor antagonist cimetidine (10(-5) M) did not alter the suppressor-enhancing function of histamine. Activation of NS cells did not occur if histamine was added with responder, stimulator, and co-cultured cells in MLR. The effects of each autacoid were additive in cytolytic T cells alone. The adenylate cyclase pools that can be stimulated by isoproterenol and histamine in cytolytic T cells may be independent of each other, but further work will be needed to prove this point. |
