background periapical lesions are induced in response to injuries to periapical tissues, which are generally the result of infections within the root canal. mast cells actively participate to the inflammatory infiltration of periapical granulomas and cysts. objectives the aim of this study was to detect and compare the presence of mast cells in inflammatory periapical lesions, including cysts a...

Resistant KIT mutations have hindered the development of KIT kinase inhibitors for treatment of patients with systemic mastocytosis. The goal of this research was to characterize the synergistic effects of a novel combination therapy involving inhibition of KIT and calcineurin phosphatase, a nuclear factor of activated T cells (NFAT) regulator, using a panel of KIT-mutant mast cell lines. The e...

Engineered nanomaterial (ENM)-mediated toxicity often involves triggering immune responses. Mast cells can regulate both innate and adaptive immune responses and are key effectors in allergic diseases and inflammation. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are one of the most prevalent nanomaterials used in consumer products due to their antimicrobial properties. We have previously shown that AgNPs indu...

The mast cell, a potent inflammatory cell type, is widely distributed over several tissues, but particularly prominent at the interface exposed to the environment to act in the first line of defense against pathogens. Upon activation mast cells release granules, which contain a large panel of mediators, including neutral proteases (e.g. chymase and tryptase), cathepsins, heparin, histamine and ...

PURPOSE To assess the clinical and pathologic significance of mast cell infiltration in human pancreatic cancer and evaluate crosstalk between mast cells and cancer cells in vitro. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Immunohistochemistry for tryptase was done on 53 pancreatic cancer specimens. Mast cell counts were correlated with clinical variables and survival. Serum tryptase activity from patients with ca...

Mast cells and basophils participate in biological responses such as inflammation and allergic reactions and contain potent mediators such as histamine and cytokines. Some drugs, for example opioids, are known to trigger mast cell degranulation with the release of immunogenic mediators that may cause severe side effects. The aim of this study was to investigate if the human mast cell line HMC-1...

BACKGROUND In advanced systemic mastocytosis the response of neoplastic mast cells to conventional drugs is poor and the prognosis is bad. Current research is, therefore, attempting to identify novel drug targets in neoplastic mast cells. Polo-like kinase-1 is a serine/threonine kinase that plays an essential role in mitosis and has recently been introduced as a new target in myeloid leukemias ...

In vitro culture systems using bone marrow cells from BALB/C mice were set up in medium supplemented with spleen-derived medium. Bone marrow cells grown in spleen-derived medium gave rise to cultures containing >97% mast cells. The cells were used in polarisation chemotaxis assays with the intention of determining the effect of nerve tissue-derived neurotransmitters on mast cell migration. ...

KIT activation, through binding of its ligand, stem cell factor, is crucial for normal mast cell growth, differentiation, and survival. Furthermore, KIT may also contribute to mast cell homing and cytokine generation. Activating mutations in KIT lead to the dysregulated mast cell growth associated with the myeloproliferative disorder, mastocytosis. We investigated the potential of downregulatin...

Mast cell activation releases the mediators associated with type I allergy. As such, the study of mast cell activation is critical for understanding the allergic reaction, and for developing methods to control it. Importantly, another ligand receptor pair (compound 48/80 and MRGPRX2) that activates mast cells in addition to allergen-IgE-FcεRI has been identified. As mast cells mature in tissue ...