Mast Cells Mediators And Disease

In 1879 Paul Ehrlich first described the mast cell as a tissue fixed cell contain ing many granules which, when stained with basic dyes, such as toluidine blue, changed the colour spectrum of the dye in a process called meta chromasia. Since this early description, pathologists, physicians and pharmacologists have been fascinated by this cell on account of its central involvement in human allergic diseases. Approximately four decades after Ehrlich's first description of the mast cell, Prausnitz and Kiistner reported their pioneer experiment, demonstrating that the immediate skin wheal response to allergen could be passively transferred with serum. They named the antigen-specific serum factor reagin. A further four and one half decades had to pass before the connection between the mast cell and reagin could be made with the identification of reagin as an immunoglobulin E by Johansson and Ishizaka and its unique property to bind with high affinity to specific receptors on mast cells and basophils. Meanwhile in the 1920s Coca published a series of papers in which he described the clinical features of acute allergic responses and first used the term atopy. This, together with the fundamental pharmacological studies of Sir Henry Dale in identifying histamine as one mediator of the acute ana phylactic reaction, provided the second approach which eventually linked the mast cell to allergic tissue reactions. Indeed, it was Best, working in Dale's group who first showed that histamine was a chemical stored in mast cells.

The editors of Mast Cell Biology, Drs. Gilfillan and Metcalfe, have enlisted an outstanding group of investigators to discuss the emerging concepts in mast cell biology with respect to development of these cells, their homeostasis, their activation, as well as their roles in maintaining health on the one hand and on the other, their participation in disease.

A cutting-edge collection of readily reproducible techniques for the isolation, culture, and study of activation and signaling in human mast cells. These methods take advantage of the latest advances in molecular biology, technology, and information science. They include methods for the identification of mast cells, the development of mast cells in vitro, the study of mast cell signaling and gene expression, and the measurement of mast cell expression of inflammatory mediators. Additional chapters cover methods for studying mast cell interactions with other cell types (endothelial cells, fibroblasts, and B cells), the roles of mast cells in host defense, and mast cell apoptosis.

Offers coverage of practical and theoretical implications of current research into mast cell biology, emphasizing the role of the mast cell in human diseases. The text covers all aspects of the mast cell from growth and differentiation to its function in such conditions as asthma and skin disease.

In this book, the editors have focused on the roles of mast cells in allergic diseases and discuss the future direction of discovering drugs. Another implication of this book is to understand mast cells at the system level. System biology is a research category to understand biology at the system level by examining the structure and dynamics of cellular and organismal functions, rather than the characteristics of isolated parts of a cell or organism.

The book presents recent advances relating to the factors and mechanisms that regulate the growth, differentiation and function of mast cells and basophils; discussion of new technologies used to study these cells, and integration of the basic scientific findings in the context of therapeutic possibilities for the treatment of diseases such as allergic inflammation and autoimmune disease which are mediated, in part, by these granulocytes.

Mast Cells and Basophils will be essential reading for immunologists, biochemists and medical researchers. Detailed chapters cover all aspects of mast cell and basophil research, from cell development, proteases, histamine, cysteinyl leukotrienes, physiology and pathology to the role of these cells in health and disease. Chapters also discuss the clinical implications of histamine receptor antagonists.