Table 1.

Summary of laboratory studies on basophils/mast cells

✓ High dilutions (up to 10−120) of Anti-IgE antibodies stimulate basophil degranulation (2). This result was not confirmed by two independent groups (19,20).

✓ Homeopathic dilutions of Apis Mellifica and Lung Histamine inhibit basophil degranulation (8,11,12).

✓ High dilutions of Histamine (10−20 to 10−38 M) influence the activation of human basophils measured by alcian blue staining (25–27). A multicenter study confirmed this finding in different laboratories, using several different techniques (24,30,32).

✓ Inhibition of basophil activation by high dilutions of histamine is reversed by anti-H2 and is not observed with histidine, these results being in favor of the specificity of this effect (31).

✓ An independent team confirmed the inhibitory effect of high dilutions of histamine (10−22 to 10−25M histamine) (33,34).

✓ One report (35) failed to replicate these findings: histamine consistently inhibited basophil degranulation only when used in low dilutions.