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Query: UNIPROT:P10721 (c-kit)
 6,575 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The ultrastructural analysis of a variety of culture systems of human cord blood mononuclear cells (spanning a 10-year research effort) is reviewed. Human basophils, eosinophils and mast cells reliably developed from their agranular precursors that are present in human cord blood. Suspension cultures and cocultures with fibroblasts were used to examine the effects on differentiation and maturation of full (fibroblast), interleukin-2-depleted (human T cells), and murine inducer T cell culture supernatants, partially purified mouse fibroblast factor(s), recombinant human interleukins 3 and 5, and recombinant human and murine c-kit ligands (stem cell factor, mast cell growth factor). Together, these studies allowed us to define the differentiation and full maturation of the basophil and eosinophil lineages and provided evidence for the induction of a form of secretion (termed piecemeal degranulation) of the basophil and eosinophil lineages in interleukin-3- or -5-supplemented cultures. Mast cells were absent from interleukin-3- or -5-containing cultures. The development of fully mature mast cells occurred regularly in fibroblast-containing cocultures; partially mature mast cells developed in fibroblast culture supernatant-, partially purified mouse fibroblast factor(s)-, and either recombinant human or murine c-kit ligand-supplemented suspension cultures. Small numbers of basophils and eosinophils were present in the suspension cultures that received c-kit ligand in its recombinant or naturally occurring forms. Ultrastructural immunogold analyses confirmed that basophils and eosinophils contained the Charcot-Leyden crystal protein (in different subcellular locations) but that mast cells did not. In both cocultures and suspension cultures, the primary event recorded for mast cells was that of differentiation and maturation, with the ultrastructural correlates of synthetic activity and granule building prevailing. Spontaneous secretory events, recognizable by ultrastructural analysis, were not evident in either mature or partially mature mast cells developing in these cultures.
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PMID:Ultrastructural analysis of the development of human basophils and mast cells in vitro. 778 14

New sources of human and mouse mast cells, which were isolated from individual organs (i.e., lung, colon, synovium, skin, uterus, heart), developed from progenitors in vitro in the presence of stem cell factor and/or interleukin (IL)-3, or enriched from fetal or adult blood, spleen or bone marrow by cell sorting, have made possible new studies of the cell biology of mast cells. Advances resulting from these new mast cell sources as well as from new methods for labeling specific products in subcellular sites and structures in resting and functional mast cells are the subject of this review. Specific advances discussed are as follows: identification of an Fc epsilonRI+ c-kit- mouse basophil population from bone marrow and spleen that is associated with IL-4 production and an Fc epsilonRI- c-kit- granulated mouse mast cell progenitor in fetal blood; identification of hyperplasia and functional activation of human skin mast cells in vivo when exposed to recombinant stem cell factor and spontaneous degranulation in X-linked immunodeficient mouse mast cells; use of an enzyme-affinity-gold method to detect histamine in mature and immature human mast cell granules, in secretion and recovery of histamine during anaphylactic degranulation of human lung mast cells ex vivo, and in secretion of histamine in vivo by piecemeal degranulation of IL-4 transgenic mouse mast cells in inflammatory eye disease and of human gut mast cells in inflammatory bowel disease; use of immunogold methods to localize cyclooxygenase and tumor necrosis factor-alpha to subcellular structures in human and rat mast cells and to localize the Charcot-Leyden crystal protein in human basophils to aid in the identification of mast cells arising in mixed cellular populations; use of a low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-gold affinity method to demonstrate a rat mast cell granule-mediated uptake of LDL by macrophages in peritoneal fluid.
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PMID:New aspects of mast cell biology. 930 24