The role of histamine in doxorubicin and teniposide-induced cardiotoxicity in dog and mouse

In previous studies we reported that teniposide (VM26) induced acute cardiac effects in dogs seem to be related to a release of histamine and that a prior treatment with chlorpheniramine, an H1 histamine blocker, prevents the onset of this phenomenon. Since histamine and other vasoactive substances also seem to be involved in doxorubicin (DXR)-induced acute cardiac effects, experiments were undertaken in the aim to prevent, as in the case of VM26, the onset of this phenomenon by administering chlorpheniramine. Since DXR-induced chronic cardiomyopathy also seems to be related to the same mechanisms involved in the onset of acute cardiac effects induced by this drug, additional studies were carried out to investigate whether a long-term treatment with VM26 could induce in mouse alterations of cardiac morphology similar to those of DXR. In addition, because the mouse is known to be extremely insensitive to histamine, further studies were performed to investigate whether DXR or VM26 administration could induce in this animal model a massive histamine release and whether a long-term treatment with high doses of histamine could elicit, similarly to DXR, alterations in cardiac morphology. The results of our experiments demonstrated that DXR (1.5 mg/kg i.v.) caused in the dog a massive histamine release and a marked impairment of cardiac inotropism. As previously described for VM26, prior treatments with chlorpheniramine completely prevented this phenomenon. Furthermore, DXR administration, at a dose level able to induce cardiac damage in the mouse (2.5 mg/kg i.v.), or that of VM26 (2 mg/kg i.v.) failed to induce a massive histamine release. In addition, long-term treatment with VM26 (2 mg/kg i.v.) or high doses of histamine (100 mg/kg i.v.), unlike DXR, did not elicit in this animal alterations of cardiac morphology. Finally, chlorpheniramine (0.15 or 0.45 mg/kg i.v.) did not prevent the onset of chronic cardiomyopathy induced by DXR in mouse. In conclusion, our results show that the role of histamine in the onset of DXR-induced chronic cardiomyopathy, at least in mouse, remains questionable and suggest that this animal, because of its high natural resistance to histamine, is not a suitable experimental model to investigate the cardiovascular pharmacology of drug-induced histamine release.