Diamine oxidase (DAO) administration has been proposed to treat certain gastrointestinal dysfunctions induced by histamine, an immunomodulator, signaling, and pro-inflammatory factor. However, H2O2 resulting from the oxidative deamination of histamine by DAO may be toxic. The purpose of this study was to investigate to which extent DAO from white pea (Lathyrus sativus), alone or in combination with catalase, may modulate histamine toxicity in the human intestinal Caco-2 cell line. The results show that histamine at concentrations higher than 1 mM is toxic to the Caco-2 cells, independently of the cell differentiation status, with a LC50 of ≅ 10 mM following a 24-h exposure. Depending on its concentration, DAO increased histamine toxicity to a greater extent in differentiated cells compared to undifferentiated cultures. In the presence of catalase, the DAO-induced increase in histamine toxicity was completely abolished in the undifferentiated cells and only partially decreased in differentiated cells, showing differences in the sensitivity of Caco-2 cells to the products resulting from histamine degradation by DAO (H2O2, NH3, or imidazole aldehyde). It appears that treatment of food histaminosis using a combination of vegetal DAO and catalase would protect against histamine toxicity and prevent H2O2-induced damage that may occur during histamine oxidative deamination.
Keywords: Caco-2 cells; Catalase; Diamine oxidase; H2O2; Histamine; Oxidative damage.