Methodological Approaches to Study Histamine Pharmacology in the Kidney: From Cell Culture and Cell Imaging to Functional Assays and Electron Microscopy

The best approach to study the complexity of renal pathophysiology is to use living organisms. However, to limit the number of animal experiments undertaken and obtain first in humans results, in vitro models can be extremely helpful options. Moreover, in vitro assays allow us to characterize a new pharmacological target, defining also the selectivity, efficacy, and potency of ligands in a specific cell type. This chapter aims to describe the steps taken to obtain a suitable model to study histamine pharmacology in renal cells, starting from the cell isolation to the morpho-functional assays. The in vitro system herein reported mostly reflects the in vivo situation as demonstrated by our previously published data.