Battelle B A, Calman B G, Andrews A W, Grieco F D, Mleziva M B, Callaway J C, Stuart A E
Whitney Laboratory, University of Florida, St. Augustine 32086.
J Comp Neurol. 1991 Mar 22;305(4):527-42. doi: 10.1002/cne.903050402.
Histamine has been proposed as a photoreceptor neurotransmitter in two major groups of arthropods, the insects and the crustacea. In this study biochemical and immunocytochemical approaches were used to examine the synthesis, endogenous content, and cellular distribution of histamine in the visual system of the horseshoe crab Limulus polyphemus, an ancient chelicerate arthropod. Studies with this animal have been critical to our understanding of the basic processes of vision. High-voltage paper electrophoresis was used to assay for histamine synthesis in Limulus tissues incubated with radiolabeled histidine; histamine synthesis was detected in the lateral, median, and ventral eyes and optic nerves and in the visual centers in the brain. Endogenous histamine, assayed as its orthophthalaldehyde derivative by high-performance liquid chromatography and electrochemical detection, was also detected in these tissues. Immunocytochemical analyses, with an antiserum directed against a protein conjugate of histamine, revealed histamine-like immunoreactivity in the somata of photoreceptors in each of the eyes and in the regions of the brain where the photoreceptors terminate. Histamine-like immunoreactivity was also intense in the cell bodies and axon collaterals of eccentric cells in the lateral eye and in eccentric cell projections in the brain. These results show that histamine is a major biogenic amine in the Limulus visual system, and they suggest that this amine is involved in transmitting visual information from the eyes to the brain and in lateral inhibition, a fundamental mechanism for processing visual information in the lateral eye.
组胺已被提出作为两类主要节肢动物（昆虫和甲壳类动物）中的一种光感受器神经递质。在本研究中，采用生化和免疫细胞化学方法来检测古老的螯肢类节肢动物鲎（美洲鲎）视觉系统中组胺的合成、内源性含量及细胞分布。对这种动物的研究对于我们理解视觉的基本过程至关重要。使用高压纸电泳来检测用放射性标记的组氨酸孵育的鲎组织中的组胺合成；在侧眼、中眼、腹眼、视神经以及脑中的视觉中枢均检测到了组胺合成。通过高效液相色谱和电化学检测将内源性组胺作为其邻苯二甲醛衍生物进行检测，在这些组织中也检测到了内源性组胺。用针对组胺蛋白偶联物的抗血清进行免疫细胞化学分析，发现在每只眼睛的光感受器细胞体以及光感受器终止的脑区均有组胺样免疫反应性。在侧眼中的偏心细胞的细胞体和轴突侧支以及脑中的偏心细胞投射中，组胺样免疫反应性也很强。这些结果表明，组胺是鲎视觉系统中的一种主要生物胺，并且表明这种胺参与将视觉信息从眼睛传递到大脑以及参与侧抑制，侧抑制是侧眼中处理视觉信息的一种基本机制。
