Cultured bovine aortic endothelial cells show increased histamine metabolism when exposed to oscillatory shear stress.

Oscillatory shear stress applied to the lining of blood vessels causes endothelial cell injury, one of the essential postulated prerequisites to the development of atherosclerosis. The purpose of this investigation was to study effects of shear stress on bovine aortic endothelial cells (BAEC), in vitro, for varying lengths of time (6 h, 12 h, 24 h) on BAEC histamine content (HC) and histidine decarboxylase activity (HD). Low intensity stress (1.6 dynes/cm2) as well as intermediate and high intensity shear stresses (3.5 dynes/cm2 and 7.6 dynes/cm2) resulted in an accelerated HD (281%) and elevated HC (144%). These data indicate that oscillatory shear stress produces increases in histamine metabolism.