Selective ablation of mast cells or basophils in mice reduces peanut-induced anaphylaxis

Background Studies using c-kit mutant mast cell (MC)-deficient mice and antibody-mediated depletion of basophils have suggested that both MCs and basophils can contribute to peanut-induced anaphylaxis (PIA) in mice. However, interpretation of data obtained using such approaches to analyze the contributions of individual effector cells to active anaphylaxis is complicated since mice with mutations affecting c-kit structure or expression have several phenotypic abnormalities in addition to their MC deficiency and basophil-depleting antibodies can also react with MCs.