Abstract
The injection of certain strains of mice and rats with living or killed Bordetella pertussis organisms is followed by altered responses of the host to various stimuli including histamine, serotonin, endotoxin, anaphylaxis and cold stress (65, 69). One of these, which has received the attention of a number of investigators, is the marked increase in histamine sensitivity that develops in pertussis-vaccinated hosts. Initially, attempts were made to define the underlying mechanism of this hyperreactive state in terms of either an increased histidine decarboxylase activity (142) or a reduced histaminase activity (66, 83). However, the proposed primary role of these enzyme malfunctions in amine sensitivity was placed in doubt by subsequent evidence (99, 141, 160).