Abstract
Histamine and anaphylatoxin (C3a) levels in plasma of concentrated red cells (CRC) and red cell concentrates with MAP solution (RC-M·A·P) were examined.
Plasma histamine levels were increased to 20nmol/2U in CRC (WBC, 2.7×109/2U), and 2nmol/2U in RC-M·A·P (WBC, 0.7×109/2U) at 21 days of storage. Good linear correlation (r=0.952) was found between the initial WBC content in blood and the histamine levels at 21 days of storage. The high plasma histamine levels in CRC may be a contributing factor to the rashes, wheezeing and flushing of nonhemolytic transfusion reactions.
Anaphylatoxin (C3a and C3a-desArg) levels increased to approximately 200μg/2U in CRC and RC-M·A·P, a level reportedly sufficient to induce platelet activation, suppression of NK activity and induce IL-1 release from macrophages.
These findings suggested that some nonhemolytic transfusion reaction might be due to the infusion of plasma with high histamine and anaphylatoxin levels and not always result from an antigen-antibody reaction.
