Molecular biology and role of histamine in physiological and pathological reactions. A review.

Histamine is known to exhibit a wide variety of both physiological and pathologic functions in different tissues and cells, this amine is one of the most general mediators of the mammalian organism. Extracellular histamine action is believed to be mediated by binding to its specific cell-surface receptor(s) resulting in the converting the extracellular signal to intracellular events. Moreover, numerous studies suggest basic role for intracellular histamine as one of the intracellular messenger moieties. The functional consequences of the action of histamine involve many physiological and pathophysiological events, including allergy, neurotransmission and cell growth.