Global environmental pollutant substance vanadium activates mast cells and basophils at the late phase in the presence of hydrogen peroxide.

Vanadium is contained in fossil fuel such as coal, oil and sand oil and released in the air through the combustion. We studied the allergic and inflammatory potentials of vanadium as the factor of a recent increase of allergic disease. Vanadium oxide (V(2)O(5)) and orthovanadate (Na(3)VO(4)) released histamine from human basophils, rat mast cells and rat basophilic leukemia (RBL-2H3) cells in the presence of hydrogen peroxide (H(2)O(2)). Activation of RBL-2H3 cells by vanadium/H(2)O(2) was accompanied by leukotriene synthesis, increases of [Ca(2+)](i), multiple protein tyrosine phosphorylations and remarkable morphological changes. Pharmacological study suggests that vanadium/H(2)O(2) activates mast cells at the late phase, bypassing the early signaling components. Thus, vanadium can amplify the allergy in the presence of H(2)O(2) at the inflammation site in the global environment of industrial age.