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)

The initiation of a humoral immune response to a foreign antigen is a complex biologic process involving the interaction of many cell types and their secreted products. Autoimmune diseases, which are characterized by an abnormal activation of the immune system, probably result from the failure of normal self-tolerance mechanisms. The etiology of such illnesses, however, is far from being understood. While there have been extensive studies on the participation of the immune and endocrine systems in autoimmune diseases, few have dealt with nervous system-mediated immunoregulation in such situations. Evidence continues to grow suggesting that nerve growth factor (NGF), first identified for its activity in promoting the growth and differentiation of sensory and sympathetic neurons, may exert a modulatory role on neuroimmunoendocrine functions of vital importance in the regulation of homeostatic processes. Newly detected NGF-responsive cells belong to the hemopoietic-immune system and to populations in the brain involved in neuroendocrine functions. NGF levels are elevated in a number of autoimmune states, along with increased accumulation of mast cells. NGF and mast cells both appear to be involved in neuroimmune interactions and tissue inflammation. Moreover, mast cells themselves synthesize, store, and release NGF, proposing that alterations in normal mast cell behaviors may provoke maladaptive neuroimmune tissue responses whose consequences could have profound implications in inflammatory disease states, including those of an autoimmune nature. This review focuses on these cellular events and presents a working model which attempts to explain the close interrelationships of the neuroendocrinoimmune triade via a modulatory action of NGF.
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PMID:Nerve growth factor and autoimmune diseases. 777 4

Despite the fact that several cell types residing in or travelling through the skin are targets and/or sources of nerve growth factor (NGF), little is known about the role of NGF in skin development, physiology and disease. Employing a previously defined skin organ culture assay for studying the proliferation of murine keratinocytes in their natural tissue environment, we have assessed the effect of murine NGF (7S) on keratinocyte proliferation in intact skin derived from two defined stages of the murine hair cycle. We found that 10-200 ng/ml NGF stimulated epidermal keratinocyte proliferation in organ-cultured C57 BL-6 mouse skin in the telogen phase of the hair cycle. Follicle keratinocyte proliferation was stimulated by 100 ng/ml NGF in telogen skin organ culture, but this concentration of NGF inhibited both epidermal and follicle keratinocyte proliferation in organ culture of anagen skin. The latter inhibitory effect of NGF was abrogated by co-incubation with neutralizing anti-NGF antibodies or with the protein kinase C inhibitor staurosporine. The proliferation-modulatory effects of NGF were associated with the induction of significant mast cell degranulation, and were inhibited by cromoglycate co-administration. This is the first report of a modulatory, hair cycle-dependent effect of NGF on keratinocyte proliferation in situ, which may require the presence of mast cells. Our study supports the notion of auto- and paracrine functions of NGF in murine skin physiology, which can be further assessed in the physiologically relevant mouse model delineated here.
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PMID:Nerve growth factor modulates keratinocyte proliferation in murine skin organ culture. 812 70

Mast cells and nerve growth factor (NGF) have both been reported to be involved in neuroimmune interactions and tissue inflammation. In many peripheral tissues, mast cells interact with the innervating fibers. Changes in the behaviors of both of these elements occur after tissue injury/inflammation. As such conditions are typically associated with rapid mast cell activation and NGF accumulation in inflammatory exudates, we hypothesized that mast cells may be capable of producing NGF. Here we report that (i) NGF mRNA is expressed in adult rat peritoneal mast cells; (ii) anti-NGF antibodies clearly stain vesicular compartments of purified mast cells and mast cells in histological sections of adult rodent mesenchymal tissues; and (iii) medium conditioned by peritoneal mast cells contains biologically active NGF. Mast cells thus represent a newly recognized source of NGF. The known actions of NGF on peripheral nerve fibers and immune cells suggest that mast cell-derived NGF may control adaptive/reactive responses of the nervous and immune systems toward noxious tissue perturbations. Conversely, alterations in normal mast cell behaviors may provoke maladaptive neuroimmune tissue responses whose consequences could have profound implications in inflammatory disease states, including those of an autoimmune nature.
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PMID:Mast cells synthesize, store, and release nerve growth factor. 817 Sep 80

The nerve growth factor (NGF) is widely distributed in the target tissues of sympathetic neurons. Hemopoietic organs such as the bone marrow (BM) and spleens are known to be innervated by noradrenergic sympathetic neurons. Some of their constitutive cells express NGF receptors (lymphocytes and stroma cells) and its biologic effects have been extensively studied in the immune system and inflammatory responses. However, the effects of NGF on hemopoiesis have been little examined. Recently, we demonstrated that NGF promoted mast cell colony formation from murine BM cells (BMC) or BMC-derived cultured mast cells and induced the phenotypic changes in standard hemopoietic assays. Besides, we demonstrated NGF-enhanced murine neutrophil survival and functional properties. In this study, in order to investigate NGF activities on neutrophil differentiation, we examined granulocyte-macrophage (GM) colony formation from murine BMC or spleen cells (SC) in the methylcellulose culture. We also assessed mast cell colony formation. GM colonies were counted on day 5 and mast cell colonies were counted on day 20 in culture. Although NGF alone (50 ng/ml) neither supported GM nor mast cell colony formation, addition of various doses of NGF to the suboptimal dose of pokeweed mitogen-stimulated SC-conditioned medium (2.5%) or interleukin 3 (50 U/ml), well-known colony-stimulating factors, increased the number of GM and mast cell colonies from both BMC and SC in a dose-dependent manner. These colony formation-enhancing effects of NGF were inhibited by the addition of neutralizing sheep anti-NGF antibodies. The results suggest that NGF may act to develop granulopoiesis including neutrophil and mast cell differentiation in cooperation with hemopoietic factor(s) during inflammatory processes.
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PMID:Murine granulocyte-macrophage and mast cell colony formation promoted by nerve growth factor. 824 98

Purified rat peritoneal mast cells in vitro die over a period of 2-6 days in conventional serum-containing medium. As mast cells die, they become pyknotic and undergo DNA fragmentation suggestive of an apoptotic process. Treatment of in vitro mast cells with nerve growth factor (NGF) greatly retards and reduces the death of mast cells (EC50 approximately 1 nM), with no effect on mast cell proliferation. Other neurotrophins have no such effect. NGF also induces the immediate early genes c-fos and NGFI-A with a similar dose dependence. In contrast to the secretagogue activity of NGF, neither the survival-promoting effect nor immediate early gene induction requires lysophosphatidylserine. The ability of NGF to promote mast cell survival is cell density-dependent and appears to be primarily because of induction of the synthesis and/or secretion of an autocrine survival factor by stimulated mast cells. These results suggest that the previously observed effects of NGF on mast cell numbers in vivo may in part be because of enhanced survival and that NGF may be an important mediator of mast cell function in normal and pathological states.
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PMID:Effects of nerve growth factor on rat peritoneal mast cells. Survival promotion and immediate-early gene induction. 830 May 99

Nerve growth factor causes mediator release from rat peritoneal mass cells in the presence of lysophosphatidylserine. We have investigated the neurotrophin and receptor specificity involved in this response. Nerve growth factor produced a dose-dependent release of [14C]serotonin in the presence of lysophosphatidylserine with an EC50 of approximately 1 nM. Incubation with brain-derived neurotrophic factor and neurotrophin-3 did not produce a response. Northern blot analysis with probes for low affinity nerve growth factor receptor (p75), trkA, trkB, and trkC demonstrated a detectable signal for trkA only. Western blots of trkA immunoprecipitates from mast cell culture lysates, probed with anti-phosphotyrosine antibodies, demonstrated expression of functional TrkA protein. To determine whether p75, trkB, or trkC mRNA was present in amounts below the limit of detection for Northern analysis, a sensitive reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction protocol was used; again rat peritoneal mast cells demonstrated only trkA. The predominant form of trkA message expressed in rat peritoneal mast cells was smaller than the neuronal form. An 18-nucleotide exon (coding for 6 amino acids in the extracellular domain) in the neuronal message was not found in the predominant mast cell trkA message. PC12 cells, a rat pheochromocytoma cell line, and dissociated rat sympathetic neurons showed both trkA and p75, but not trkB or trkC. Anterior pituitary expressed both trkB and trkC, but not trkA. To confirm the lack of expression of p75 on mast cells, 125I-nerve growth factor was chemically cross-linked to mast cells or PC12 cells and then immunoprecipitated with a monoclonal antibody specific for p75, 192-IgG; no p75 was detected. Thus, mediator release from rat peritoneal mast cells by nerve growth factor was specific and not a general property of neurotrophins, and the response was modulated through the trkA proto-oncogene. To our knowledge, this is the first description of a bone marrow-derived cell type that expresses trkA at both the mRNA and protein levels. These data provide further evidence that p75 is not necessary for nerve growth factor signal transduction.
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PMID:Mediator release from mast cells by nerve growth factor. Neurotrophin specificity and receptor mediation. 832 66

In contrast to most cytokines, interleukin 4 (IL-4) expression is restricted to T lymphocytes, with the exception of mast cell lines and mast cells, as more recently demonstrated in rodents. Little is known, however, about the capacity of human nonlymphoid cells to produce IL-4. In this study we show that mature human basophils are capable of expressing IL-4 and examine the regulation of IL-4 production in comparison with the lipid mediator leukotriene C4. IL-4 was produced upon immunoglobulin E receptor (IgER) activation of basophils cultured with IL-3, a cytokine previously shown to prime these cells for enhanced release of inflammatory mediators. In some experiments, IL-3 or IgER activation alone also induced IL-4 production close to the detection limit. The effect of IL-3 on IgER-dependent IL-4 expression was dose and time dependent: maximal IL-4 production occurred between 18 and 48 h preexposure of basophils to 3-10 ng/ml IL-3. IgER-induced IL-4 synthesis and release by basophils cultured with IL-3 was rapid and complete after 6 h. In contrast to IL-3, other cytokines (IL-5, granulocyte/macrophage colony-stimulating factor, and nerve growth factor) that also prime basophils for enhanced histamine and leukotriene C4 release did not promote IgER-induced IL-4 synthesis. Basophils appear to secrete a "TH2-like" cytokine profile since no detectable IL-2 or interferon gamma was produced upon IgER activation. Mononuclear cells (depleted of basophils), cultured in parallel, did not release IL-4 in response to IL-3 and/or IgER activation, and produced approximately ten times less IL-4 than basophils upon nonspecific activation by phorbol ester and calcium ionophore. Thus, human basophils are an important cellular source of IL-4, and may, therefore, in addition to their inflammatory effector functions, also regulate the differentiation of T helper cells and B cells, in particular in allergic diseases.
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PMID:Human peripheral blood basophils primed by interleukin 3 (IL-3) produce IL-4 in response to immunoglobulin E receptor stimulation. 843 4

The contribution of nerve growth factor (NGF) to inflammatory hyperalgesia potentially could be mediated by any of the three peripheral cell types that express trkA, the high-affinity NGF receptor: inflammatory cells, sympathetic neurons, and primary sensory neurons. To investigate their relative involvement, the effects of sympathectomy and mast cell degranulation were examined on the local inflammation produced by an intraplantar injection of complete Freund's adjuvant in the adult rat. Sympathectomy, produced by neonatal guanethidine treatment, elevated basal NGF levels in the skin but did not attenuate a further increase in NGF during inflammation. Although the onset of inflammatory hyperalgesia was delayed in sympathectomized animals, peak sensitivity was not affected and was still NGF-dependent. In contrast, mast cell degranulation produced by several days of treatment with the cationic secretagogue compound 48/80, while also increasing basal NGF levels, prevented a further increase in NGF levels and attenuated hypersensitivity during inflammation. Neither manipulation modified the inflammatory upregulation of interleukin-1beta. We conclude that sympathetic neurons contribute transiently to inflammatory hyperalgesia, but that mast cells and sensory neurons are important sites for the sustained action of NGF in producing increased sensitivity during inflammation.
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PMID:Peripheral cell types contributing to the hyperalgesic action of nerve growth factor in inflammation. 878 47

The epithelium of the gastrointestinal tract is continuously exposed to the external environment containing food antigens, microbes and other pathogens. Immunologic and nonimmunologic mechanisms contribute to the neutralization and elimination of these foreign antigens. The immune system of the intestine is the most extensive in the organism and involves diffuse populations of immune cells, lymphoid aggregates and intraepithelial lymphocytes. On the other hand, the functions of the digestive tract contribute to the overall host defense (mucus secretion, gastric acid secretion, water and electrolyte secretion and peristaltism). These functions are regulated by intrinsic and extrinsic nervous systems. It is currently recognized that the physiological and pathological responses of the intestine require an integrate neuroimmune network. Such neuroimmune regulation is based on anatomical and biochemical supports. Indeed, there are membrane-to-membrane contacts between axonal varicosities and the immune cells. Specific receptors for neurotransmitters such as substance P, vasoactive intestinal polypeptide and somatostatin have been identified in many immune cells. Nerve profile change has been described under pathological conditions such as parasitic infections and acute phase of inflammation. In addition to supporting the growth and survival of several populations of nerves the classical nerve growth factor (NGF) has been shown to affect an immune cell population by inducing mast cell hyperplasia. Furthermore the NGF can induce mast cell degranulation, acting directly on mast cell membrane NGF receptors or indirectly by NGF-mediated release of substance P by peripheral extrinsic or intrinsic nerves. Moreover, non-immune cells such as epithelial and smooth muscle cells can produce immunologic messengers under pathological conditions such as infectious diseases or inflammation. Besides the local regulation of gut functions, neuroimmune control can be exerted at extra-intestinal sites. During physiological and pathological conditions, gastrointestinal secretions and motor events are strongly regulated by the central nervous system. Moreover, infectious agents can induce cytokine and particularly interleukin-1 release by the brain astrocytes and microglial cells which have been shown to play a pivotal role in fever induction and modifications of the gastrointestinal functions. Visceral afferent fibers play a pivotal role in 'cross-communication' between central sites and immune response. Recent studies evoke, more specifically, the role of vagus as a key modulatory participant in the close relationship between the extraintestinal nerves and the immune system. Future work in this field will clarify the role of the different participants in the intimate communication between the gastrointestinal tract, immune system and central nervous system.
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PMID:Integrative neuroimmunology of the digestive tract. 882 13

The factors that control migration of mast cells to sites of inflammation and tissue repair remain largely undefined. Whereas several recent studies have described chemotactic factors that induce migration of murine mast cells, only stem cell factor (SCF) is known to induce migration of human mast cells. We report here that the anaphylatoxins C3a and C5a are chemotactic factors for the human mast cell line HMC-1, human cord blood-derived mast cells (CBMC) and cutaneous mast cells in vitro. The presence of an extracellular matrix protein, laminin, was required for chemotaxis in response to complement peptides. Migration of mast cells towards C3a and C5a was dose-dependent, peaking at 1 microg/mL (100 nmol/L), and was inhibited by specific antibodies. Pretreatment with pertussis toxin inhibited the anaphylatoxin-mediated migration of HMC-1 cells, indicating that Gi proteins are involved in complement-activated signal transduction pathways in human mast cells. Both C3a and C5a also induced a rapid and transient mobilization of intracellular free calcium ([Ca2+]i) in HMC-1 cells. Besides SCF, other chemotactic factors tested, such as interleukin-3, nerve growth factor, transforming growth factor beta, RANTES (regulated upon activation, normal Tcell expressed and secreted), monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1), MCP-2, MCP-3, macrophage inflammatory protein-1alpha (MIP-1alpha), and MIP-1beta, failed to stimulate migration of human mast cells. In summary, these findings indicate that C3a and C5a serve as chemotaxins for human mast cells. Anaphylatoxin-mediated recruitment of mast cells might play an important role in hypersensitivity and inflammatory processes.
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PMID:C3a and C5a stimulate chemotaxis of human mast cells. 910 6


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