Morphological and histochemical characteristics of mast cells and the content of in-tissue histamine in various pathological parathyroids: do mast cells participate in hormone secretion in human parathyroids?

The possibility of the participation of mast cells in human parathyroid hormone secretion was studied with regard to the frequency, distribution, and sub-types of mast cells and the content of in-tissue histamine, a chemical mediator in mast-cell granules, in human parathyroids with various pathological conditions. The above factors were compared between those of a 'normal' parathyroid group and those of 'pathological' parathyroids associated with adenoma and hyperplasia. Specimens were scanned for the mean value of the mast cell number per field of microscopic view and for the ratio of the mast cell number in glandular parenchymal tissue to that in interstitial tissue. The activated state of the mast cells was examined through classifying the mast cells into two sub-types, mucosal mast cells and connective-tissue mast cells. The high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method was used for assay of in-tissue histamine. The frequency of mast cells showed no difference between the groups, whereas the distribution of mast cells, showed a distinct difference. The occurrence rate of mast cells in glandular parenchymal tissue in the 'pathological' group presented an increase as compared with that in the 'normal' group. Furthermore, the occurrence rate of mucosal mast cells in an activated state also showed an increase. This suggests that mast cells are likely to participate in parathyroid hormone secretion. The histamine-content in the 'normal' group was significantly larger than that in the 'pathological' group, which was a different outcome from that observed in mast cells from the results of light microscopy. This may require taking into consideration the difference in the histamine content of the mast cells themselves between that of mucosal mast cells and connective-tissue mast cells.