Histamine production by alloantigen-activated mouse bone marrow cells.

Histamine's contribution to the manifestations associated with graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and/or hybrid resistance is unknown. Thus, we initiated studies to see whether or not mouse bone marrow cells could produce histamine upon alloantigen stimulation. Irradiated allogeneic spleen cells were shown to stimulate bone marrow cells to produce and secrete high levels of histamine. During 7 days of culture there was only a marginal increase in cell-associated histamine while the amount of histamine in the supernatant increased 10- to 20-fold. Optimal histamine production was dependent upon Lyt 1+2+ T cells resident in the bone marrow. Further, bone marrow cells from Nude mice failed to produce high levels of histamine following alloantigen stimulation. Soluble factors produced by alloantigen-stimulated bone marrow cells or by Con A-stimulated rat spleen cells induced high levels of histamine production in bone marrow cells in the absence of alloantigen. We suggest that histamine production by alloantigen-activated bone marrow cells may modulate immune functions following bone marrow transplantation.