Effect of Diamines, Polyamines and Tuna Fish Extracts on the Binding of Histamine to Mucin In Vitro

Binding of [ring‐2‐ 14 C]‐histamine to mucin was studied. Maximum binding of 2.5 μmol histamine/μmol mucin was observed at a histamine concentration of 0.5 mg/ml. Histamine binding was decreased by 46.5% by spermine, 25.3% by spermidine, 9.5% by cadaverine, and 11.1% by putrescine. These maximum effects were observed at molar ratios of histamine to polyamine of 1:1 for spermine and spermidine, 1:2 for cadaverine, and 1:2.3 for putrescine. The relative effects on histamine binding to mucin of extracts from wholesome canned tuna fish and a mixture of spermine, spermidine, cadaverine and putrescine were also examined. Although the total neutral aqueous extract of tuna had little effect on histamine‐mucin binding (5.4% inhibition), the extract of bases from tuna and the prepared base mixture showed maximum inhibition of histamine binding to mucin of 23.1% and 21.4%, respectively. Certain other components of tuna extracts (NaCl, aspartic acid and glutamic acid) did not decrease histamine‐mucin binding under the conditions used.