Response of cerebral circulation to topical histamine.

To study the effect of histamine (HA) on brain blood flow and capillary permeability, bilateral parietal craniectomies were made in cats anesthetized with nitrous oxide and ketamine. The dura was removed and solutions of HA in mock cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in varying concentrations ranging from 10(-5) M to 10(-1) M were irrigated continuously onto the exposed brain while local cerebral blood flow was determined polarographically by hydrogen clearance. Capillary permeability was assessed by determining HA's effect on the 125I-albumin space of the brain. Electrical activity was monitored by electrocorticography. HA consistently dilated pial blood vessels and produced within 15 min a dose-related local hyperemia that subsided 30--60 min after HA was removed. Hyperemia was blocked by cimetidine. HA had no appreciable effect on either the blood-brain barrier to albumin or the electrical activity of the cortex. HA is pharmacologically capable of participating directly in the acute hyperemic response of the brain's microcirculation to physiologic and pathologic stimuli but has little effect on cerebrovascular permeability to protein.