Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:P15088 (mast cell)
 14,925 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Nine biopsy specimens from the jejunum of patients with a clinical history of food allergy and 10 from the rectal mucosa of patients with presumed 'allergic proctitis' were fixed in cold ethanol and further processed for paraffin embedding. Serial tissue sections were stained for IgE by direct (polyclonal antibody) and indirect (monoclonal antibody) immunofluorescence methods. Adjacent sections were subjected to conventional mast cell staining (astra blue). In all mucosal specimens from the jejunum and in 8 rectal ones, numerous cells were found to be positive both for astra blue by transmission microscopy and for IgE by fluorescence microscopy of the same section. With the monoclonal antibody all astra-blue-positive cells were IgE-positive; however, this was not always the case with the polyclonal reagent, probably because the fluorescence was weaker with the direct technique. Detection of IgE-positive mucosal mast cells may turn out to be of diagnostic interest in patients with adverse reactions to food.
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PMID:IgE-positive cells in human intestinal mucosa are mainly mast cells. 266 1

Radiation proctitis is characterized by mucosal inflammation followed by adverse chronic tissue remodeling and is associated with substantial morbidity and mortality. Mast cell hyperplasia has been associated with diseases characterized by pathological tissue remodeling and fibrosis. Rectal tissue from patients treated with radiotherapy shows mast cell hyperplasia and activation, suggesting that these cells play a role in the development of radiation-induced sequelae. To investigate the role of mast cells in radiation damage, experimental radiation proctitis was induced in a mast cell-deficient (W(sh)/W(sh)) mouse model. The colon and rectum of W(sh)/W(sh) and wild-type mice were exposed to 27-Gy single-dose irradiation and studied after 2 and 14 weeks. Irradiated rodent rectum showed mast cell hyperplasia. W(sh)/W(sh) mice developed less acute and chronic rectal radiation damage than their control littermates. Tissue protection was associated with increased tissue neutrophil influx and expression of several inflammatory mediators immediately after radiation exposure. It was further demonstrated that mast cell chymase, tryptase, and histamine could change human muscularis propria smooth muscle cells into a migrating/proliferating and proinflammatory phenotype. These data show that mast cells have deleterious effects on both acute and chronic radiation proctitis, possibly by limiting acute tissue neutrophil influx and by favoring phenotypic orientation of smooth muscle cells, thus making them active participants in the radiation-induced inflammatory process and dystrophy of the rectal wall.
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PMID:Mast cells are an essential component of human radiation proctitis and contribute to experimental colorectal damage in mice. 2128 96