In order to understand the background and significance of this work, we need to go back eleven years. A series of experiments reported by the research group lead by Dr Jacques Benveniste in Nature in June 1988 caused euphoria in the homeopathic world. Certainly, the implications were amazing, particularly to those unfamiliar with homeopathy. But euphoria soon gave way to dismay and disarray with the publication of a report by a team nominated by the editor of Nature, which described the work as a 'delusion' and 'pseudo-science'. Benveniste responded indignantly, accusing the inspection team of witch hunting and McCarthyism.
Basophils are leucocytes which play an important role in the anaphylactic reaction.
Their cytoplasm contains granules containing histamine and other immune mediators which, when released, produce an allergic reaction. Basophils can be provoked to degranulate by various stimuli. Various stimuli provoke basophil degranulation, for instance the basophils of hayfever sufferers degranulate when mixed with pollen extract in vitro. But there are also non-specific stimuli which provoke degranulation of all basophils, sensitised or not. It is this binding which triggers degranulation.