Although the functional similarity of basophils and mast cells is widely accepted, their distinctive morphological features have been taken to indicate the existence of two different, albeit functionally complementary, cell systems. The recent demonstration that mast cells as well as basophils originate from the bone marrow raises the possibility that these cells derive from the same precursor....

Recent studies have demonstrated that Bacillus subtilis-derived poly-gamma glutamic acid (γPGA) treatment suppresses the development of allergic diseases such as atopic dermatitis (AD). Although basophils, an innate immune cell, are known to play critical roles in allergic immune responses and repeated long-term administration of γPGA results in decreased splenic basophils in an AD murine model...

BACKGROUND There is increasing evidence for the role of basophils in the pathogenesis of atopic diseases such as bronchial asthma, atopic dermatitis and atopic rhinitis. Recently, it has been reported that basophils derived from healthy donors produce the immunoregulatory cytokines interleukin (IL)-4 and IL-13 after cross-linking of cell surface IgE. In addition to well-known inflammatory media...

Cutaneous basophil hypersensitivity, an immune inflammatory reaction characterized by infiltrates of basophils and a delayed time-course, was studied in guinea pigs contact sensitized with oxazolone. Routine histological techniques, employing ordinary paraffin sections, were modified to study this reaction. When biopsies of contact lesions were processed by these methods dense infiltrates of ba...

Alcohol sensitivity is reported in up to 74-86.5% of patients with chronic rhinosinusitis nasal polyposis (CRSwNP) and especially those aspirin-exacerbated respiratory disease (AERD). These typically report beverages fermented wood casks, fruit skins, or hops, but not other alcohol-containing drinks. We speculated that alcohol AERD/CRSwNP could result from activation basophils by polyphenols de...

Basophils possess membrane bound IgE molecules, and immunological activation leads to a secretary process with cell degranulation and histamine release. Heterologous anti IgE, concanavaline A, and phytohaemagglutinin are potent non-cytotoxic releasing agents. They operate by a mechanism similar to that ofimmunological activation. Heavy water is not a histamine releasing inducer but it increases...

The febrile response to bacterial endotoxin was measured in rabbits made leukopenic with nitrogen mustard. A striking increase in susceptibility to the lethal effects of endotoxin occurred in severely leukopenic animals. Animals without circulating granulocytes, or with only basophils, developed no significant fever after endotoxin injection. Animals with circulating granulocytes other than bas...

The presence of basophilic leucocytes (basophils)* in human blood was first established by Ehrlich (1891). These cells differ from other polymorphs by their slightly smaller size, by the metachromatic staining reaction of their granules, and by their slower rate of motility (Sabin, 1923). Probably less is known about the basophils than about any of the other formed elements in the blood, mainly...