Accumulating evidence suggests that mast cells play critical roles in disruption and maintenance of intestinal homeostasis, although it remains unknown how they affect the local microenvironment. Interleukin-9 (IL-9) was found to play critical roles in intestinal mast cell accumulation induced in various pathological conditions, such as parasite infection and oral allergen-induced anaphylaxis. Newly recruited intestinal mast cells trigger inflammatory responses and damage epithelial integrity through release of a wide variety of mediators including mast cell proteases. We established a novel culture model (IL-9-modified mast cells, MCs/IL-9), in which murine IL-3-dependent bone-marrow-derived cultured mast cells (BMMCs) were further cultured in the presence of stem cell factor and IL-9. In MCs/IL-9, drastic upregulation of Mcpt1 and Mcpt2 was found. Although histamine storage and tryptase activity were significantly downregulated in the presence of SCF and IL-9, this was entirely reversed when mast cells were cocultured with a murine fibroblastic cell line, Swiss 3T3. MCs/IL-9 underwent degranulation upon IgE-mediated antigen stimulation, which was found to less sensitive to lower concentrations of IgE in comparison with BMMCs. This model might be useful for investigation of the spatiotemporal changes of newly recruited intestinal mast cells.Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2020, 21, 236 2 of 13 the intestinal nematodes and local mastocytosis in epithelial layer of the gut, trachea and kidney [8][9][10]. The number of intestinal mast cells were unchanged in the gene-targeted mice lacking IL-9 or IL-9 receptor-α chain, whereas oral-antigen-induced accumulation of intestinal mast cells was impaired in these mice [11,12]. These findings indicate that IL-9 should trigger intestinal mastocytosis upon parasite infection and newly recruited mast cells should make a significant contribution towards worm expulsion. IL-9 was found to enhance stem cell factor (SCF)-mediated proliferation of murine bone-marrow-derived cultured mast cells, although IL-9 alone could not support mast cell growth and survival [13]. It remains largely unknown how transdifferentiation of intestinal mast cells should occur under the influence of IL-9 and SCF.IL-3-dependent bone-marrow-derived cultured mast cells (BMMCs) have been investigated as a useful model of murine immature mast cells. BMMCs were initially regarded as a model of mucosal mast cells, because they stored chondroitin sulphate E, rather than heparin, in their granules and had lower amounts of histamine, both being characteristic of persistent mucosal mast cells [14]. However, accumulating evidence has suggested that there are many differences among BMMCs, resident mucosal mast cells and recruited mast cells upon parasite infection. IL-3 was found to play critical roles in parasite expulsion and intestinal mastocytosis [15]. Murine mucosal mast cells recruited upon parasite infection were found to highly express a series of chymase genes, such as Mcpt1 [16], although little or no expression of the...