CHARACTERIZATION OF HUMAN MAST-CELLS IN LONG-TERM CULTURE

Google Scholar
  • 1 January 1983
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 62  (6) , 1251-1260
Abstract
Recent studies in rodents have demonstrated that mast cells derived from lymphoid tissues can be grown in long-term culture, provided that supportive growth factors or stromal fibroblasts are added; such findings were not reported in man. Although a hemopoietic origin for mast cells is supported by transplantation studies in mice, the exact origin of the human mast cell or its relationship to the circulating basophil and other hemopoietic cell lineages is unknown. The requirements for in vitro growth of human mast cells derived from the infiltrated bone marrow of a patient with systmeic mastocytosis were investigated, and both the mast cells proliferating in these cultures1 and those obtained from splenic infiltrates were characterizied. Two questions were approached as follows: is there any evidence for the origin of mast cells from a bone-marrow-derived stem cell, and, if so, what lineage relationship is there between mast cells and granulopoietic cells, including basophils ?. First, the expression of hemopoietic tissue-specific antigens by mast cells was shown, strongly supporting a bone marrow origin for the mast cell in man (at least for those mast cells analyzed here). Second, the complete lack of granulocyte-monocyte markers contrasts with the phenotype of the basophil and suggests that mast cells diverge considerably from other granulopoietic cells during the acquisition of their differentiated specialized functions.