Abstract
Histamine is known to exert profound effects on the cardiovascular system in many mammals. Carnosine (β-alanyl-l-histidine) is a dipeptide previously known to be present only in a few tissues. It is our hypothesis that carnosine serves as a non-mast cell reservoir for histidine, available for histamine synthesis during periods of physiologic stress. To validate this hypothesis, we demonstrated the existence of carnosine in multiple histamine-rich tissues in several mammalian species; documented a metabolic link between carnosine and histidine, histamine and 3-methylhistamine (a degradation product of histamine) in unstressed animals, and showed that tissue carnosine is decreased simultaneously with an increase in tissue histamine during stress.
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New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station Publication No. 214101-5-89. Supported by a grant from the American Heart Association, New Jersey Affiliate and funds from the State of New Jersey.
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Flancbaum, L., Fitzpatrick, J.C., Brotman, D.N. et al. The presence and significance of carnosine in histamine-containing tissues of several mammalian species. Agents and Actions 31, 190–196 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01997607
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01997607