The immediate-type allergic reaction is involved in many allergic diseases such as asthma, allergic rhinitis, and sinusitis. The discovery of drugs for the treatment of immediate-type allergic disease is a very important subject in human health. The three kinds of phenylethanoid glycoside, acteoside, echinacoside and cistanoside A, were extracted from Cistanche tubulosa which thrives in arid la...

Early endosomes and a perinuclear, Rab-11-positive compartment have been implicated in the recycling of internalized receptors. In this study, we show that synaptotagmin III (Syt III), a member of the Syt family of proteins, is required for the formation and delivery of cargo to the perinuclear endocytic recycling compartment (ERC). We demonstrate that rat basophilic leukemia (RBL-2H3) mast cel...

Immortal mast cell lines, such as RBL-2H3 and HMC-1 cells, are commonly utilized to investigate the function of mast cells. However, they are tumor cells carrying a gain-of-function mutation of Kit. We established an immortal mast cell line without Kit mutation, NCL-2, derived from NC mouse bone marrow. NCL-2 cells could be maintained without additional growth factors and thus could respond to ...

The palm fruit açaí is known to have potential health benefits due to its antioxidant scavenging capacities. Pretreatment of IgE-sensitized mouse primary cultured mast cells with açaí pulp resulted in the dramatic suppression of antigen-induced degranulation in a dose-dependent manner. Similarly, açaí suppressed IgE-mediated degranulation and transcription of the cytokine genes from a cultured ...

Here we tested the role of calcium influx factor (CIF) and calcium-independent phospholipase A2 (iPLA2) in activation of CRAC (Ca release-activated Ca) channels and storeoperated Ca entry (SOCE) in rat basophilic leukemia (RBL-2H3) cells. We demonstrate that: 1) endogenous CIF production may be triggered by Ca release (net loss), as well as by simple buffering of free Ca within the stores; 2) s...

The IL-8 (CXCL8) receptors CXCR1 and CXCR2 couple to Gαi to induce leukocyte recruitment and activation at sites of inflammation. We recently showed that CXCR1 couples predominantly to the G protein-coupled receptor kinase (GRK)2, whereas CXCR2 interacts with GRK6 to regulate cellular responses. In addition to G protein-coupled receptors, GRKs displayed a more diverse protein/protein interactio...