Correlation between Movements of Gravid Uterus and Formation of Histamine

Abstract

Harding and Fort 1 first noted the presence of a considerable amount of histamine in the placenta. This has been confirmed several times since. As an accumulation of histamine could be dangerous for normal pregnancy it seemed consistent to investigate whether histaminase is present in the placenta. Danforth and Corham 2 found histaminase to be present in the human placenta though in extremely variable amounts. Danforth 3 demonstrated that the amount of histaminase to be found in the placenta “shows some correlation with the efficiency of uterus contractions of women during labor.”

During researches—Daels and Donatelli 4-6 —on the motility of the cat's uterus (about 150 animals) we had the opportunity to examine the motility of the uterus of 7 pregnant cats. These observations seem to us to be in correlation with the problem mentioned above and this is why we want to publish them. The cats in our experiments were narcotized with chloralosane; the distal end of one uterus horn was fixed by a thread which was connected by a Jackson tube to a level which registrated the movements. The abdomen was closed, the animal warmed.

Table 1 shows the results of these 7 experiments.

While pregnant uteri of other species hardly show any movements 7 the uteri of our 7 pregnant cats showed movements of similar kind: every 2 minutes there arises one movement, which lasts about 1 minute. (Fig. 1).