WDDTY reports:
It is tragic that it has taken 16 years to vindicate the controversial discoveries of Dr Jacques Benveniste – and in the very week that he has died.
Dr Benveniste scientifically proved the basis of homeopathy in a series of experiments with water, which were published in Nature in 1988. Thereafter the medical establishment pilloried him, research funding was taken away, and his very promising career in science was ended. Television magician James Randi visited Benveniste’s laboratories but, not surprisingly perhaps, was unable to verify his discovery.
But scientists … have finally proved his findings. Four independent laboratories, in Ireland, Italy, France and the Netherlands, have discovered that effects can occur below the level at which any molecule of the substance is present.
Histamine dilutions modulate basophil activation
P. Belon1, J. Cumps2, M. Ennis3 , P. F. Mannaioni4, M. Roberfroid5, J. Sainte-Laudy6 and F. A. C. Wiegant7
Inflammation Research 53:5:181-188, April 2004
(1) Boiron, 20 rue de la Libération, 69110 Sainte-Foy-Les-Lyon, France
(2) UCL 7369, 73 avenue Emmanuel Mounier, 1220 Brussels, Belgium
(3) Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Institute of Clinical Science, The Queens University of Belfast, Grosvenor Road, BT12 6BJ Belfast, United Kingdom
(4) Department of Pharmacology, Pieraccini 6, 50139 Florence, Italy
(5) Laboratoire de biotoxicologie, 73 avenue Emmanuel Mounier, 1220 Brussels, Belgium
(6) Laboratoire dImmunologie et dAllergologie, 5 boulevard Montparnasse, 75006 Paris, France (7) Department of Molecular Cell Biology, University of Utrecht, 3508 Utrecht, The Netherlands
Abstract Background: In order to demonstrate that high dilutions of histamine are able to inhibit basophil activation in a reproducible fashion, several techniques were used in different research laboratories.
Objective: The aim of the study was to investigate the action of histamine dilutions on basophil activation.
Methods: Basophil activation was assessed by alcian blue staining, measurement of histamine release and CD63 expression. Study 1 used a blinded multi-centre approach in 4 centres. Study 2, related to the confirmation of the multi-centre study by flow cytometry, was performed independently in 3 laboratories. Study 3 examined the histamine release (one laboratory) and the activity of H2 receptor antagonists and structural analogues (two laboratories).
Results:High dilutions of histamine (10–30–10–38 M) influence the activation of human basophils measured by alcian blue staining. The degree of inhibition depends on the initial level of anti-IgE induced stimulation, with the greatest inhibitory effects seen at lower levels of stimulation. This multicentre study was confirmed in the three laboratories by using flow cytometry and in one laboratory by histamine release. Inhibition of CD63 expression by histamine high dilutions was reversed by cimetidine (effect observed in two laboratories) and not by ranitidine (one laboratory). Histidine tested in parallel with histamine showed no activity on this model.
Conclusions: In 3 different types of experiment, it has been shown that high dilutions of histamine may indeed exert an effect on basophil activity. This activity observed by staining basophils with alcian blue was confirmed by flow cytometry. Inhibition by histamine was reversed by anti-H2 and was not observed with histidine these results being in favour of the specificity of this effect. We are however unable to explain our findings and are reporting them to encourage others to investigate this phenomenon.