Role of substance P on histamine H(3) antagonist-induced scratching behavior in mice.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the involvement of chemical mediators, other than histamine, in the scratching behavior induced by H(3) antagonists. Scratching behavior was induced by the histamine H(3) antagonists iodophenpropit and clobenpropit (10 nmol/site) when they were injected intradermally into the rostral part of the back of mast-cell-deficient (WBB6F1 W/W(v)) and wild-type (WBB6F1 +/+) mice. Subsequently, the effect of spantide, a tachykinin NK(1) antagonist, was measured for 60 min. The effects of the H(3) antagonists on in vitro histamine release from rat peritoneal mast cells were also investigated. When spantide was injected intradermally at a dose of 0.5 nmol/site, it significantly inhibited the response. Furthermore, iodophenpropit and clobenpropit (10(-6)-10(-8) M) did not induce histamine release in isolated rat peritoneal mast cells. Our results indicate that substance P is involved in the skin responses elicited by the histamine H(3) antagonists. Moreover, the fact that these histamine H(3) antagonists did not induce significant increases in the histamine release from rat peritoneal mast cells suggests that the histamine H(3) receptor may not be present in the peripheral cells considered in this study.