Effect of Histamine H2-Receptor Antagonists on Acute Inflammatory of the Rat Paw Oedema

The effect of three histamine H2-antagonists, cimetidine, ranitidine, and loxtidine, on acute rat paw oedema induced by histamine, carrageenan or complete Freund's adjuvant, have been examined. Administered intraperitoneally, all three antagonists inhibited histamine-induced paw oedema dose-dependently in the range 0.5-15 mumol kg-1. The highest dose of cimetidine produced an inhibition of 92% as against 38% with the same dose of mepyramine. Analysis of the concentration-effect curves produced IC50 values of 1.66, 5.12 and 12.30 mumol kg-1 for cimetidine, loxtidine, and ranitidine, respectively, on histamine-induced oedema. In carrageenan-induced inflammation 12.3 mumol kg-1 of each of the three drugs produced significant inhibition, whereas in adjuvant-induced inflammation, (acute phase), cimetidine was very active, loxtidine less so and ranitidine inactive. Thus the relative effectiveness of the antagonists (cimetidine greater than loxtidine greater than ranitidine) appears to differ from their known potency relationship (loxtidine greater than ranitidine greater than cimetidine) on H2-mediated effects. We conclude that H2-receptors are involved in the induction of rat paw oedema, especially those induced by histamine and carrageenan, but that their relative effectiveness appears atypical.