The Lyme disease spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, is introduced into human hosts via tick bites. Among the cell types present in the skin which may initially contact spirochetes are mast cells. Since spirochetes are known to activate a variety of cell types in vitro, we tested whether B. burgdorferi spirochetes could activate mast cells. We report here that freshly isolated rat peritoneal mast...

The mast cells are initial effective lineage in both humoral and adaptive immunity. They are ubiquitous in skin, mucosa, and in function. They contain biologically essential and dynamic mediators in healthy and harmful conditions of tissue. Mast cell malfunctioning could be attributed to various chronic allergic diseases. Considerately, emerging evidence of mast cell involvement in various canc...

AIM To study the activation of pancreatic and pulmonary mast cells and the effect of mast cell inhibition on the activation of peritoneal and alveolar macrophages during acute pancreatitis. METHODS Pancreatitis was induced by intraductal infusion of 5% sodium taurodeoxycholate in rats. The mast cell inhibitor cromolyn was administered intraperitoneally (i.p.) 30 min before pancreatitis induct...

Mast cells and their proteases are thought to participate in the development of skin blisters in various pathological conditions. In this study, suction blistering was used as an experimental model to evaluate the significance of mast cells in blister formation after pre-treatment of normal skin with intradermal injections of 100 microg/ml compound 48/80 (a mast cell degranulator) or with 0.1% ...

Recently, an increased number of mast cells have been reported in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BAL) of patients with farmer's lung disease. Some authors pointed out the pathogenetic importance of mast cells in farmer's lung on the basis of their correlation with the activity of the disease, with the BAL lymphocyte counts, and with the markers of lung fibrosis. To determine whether BAL reflects...

Background: Secretory proteins of IgE receptor activated mast cells and basophils play a pivotal role in the generation of immediate and long term immune responses in allergy and type I hypersensitivity. Objective: The present study aims to generate a 2-D map and profile of proteins secreted from a high secretory variant of the rat basophilic leukemia cell line, RBL-2H3.1, which in view of the ...