Early Development of Mast Cells

Abstract

Mast cells originate from pluripotential cells in the bone marrow. Specifically, human mast cells originate from CD 34-positive progenitor cells. Mast cell proliferation requires IL-3. In the mouse, additional mast cell growth is achieved by the addition of IL-4, and GM-CSF prevents mast cell proliferation. Early bone-marrow-derived mast cells can be identified by their IgE receptors, although they may not yet have the characteristic morphology of mature mast cells. Whether these early cells may by themselves have a physiologic role, remains to be determined. Mast cells persist in culture on fibroblast monolayers, in part due to the production of soluble factor(s) from the fibroblasts themselves. Final mast cell phenotype appears dependent upon the local tissue environment.

Human mast cells express receptors for IL‐3, IL‐5 and GM‐CSF; a partial map of receptors on human mast cells cultured in vitro

“…The differentiation process of human mast cells is not yet well described. It is established that they are bone marrow derived, but their exact lineage relationship to other haematopoietic cells and the phenotype of committed, specific mast cell precursors remain obscure (5, 6). Immature CD133 + progenitors circulate in blood and home to extravascular tissues were they mature into mast cells (7, 8).…”

Paediatric mastocytosis

“…It is at these sites, under the influence of cytokines (interleukins 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, and 15) [3][4][5][6][7][8][9] and the principal mast cell growth factor, stem cell factor (SCF), that mast cells differentiate from a CD34+ pluripotent haematopoietic stem cell. 10 This pluripotential cell expresses the receptor for SCF, KIT (CD117), but does not yet express the high affinity IgE receptor, FceRI.…”

Origin maturation and recruitment of mast cell precursors

“…Although mast cells were first described by Paul Erlich in 1879 (23), their origin remained controversial for almost a century. Several possible candidates for mast cell precursors were suggested, among them mesenchymal cells, lympohocytes, macrophages, mononuclear phagocytes and myeloid cells (24,25). Because of their association with connective tissue, it was initially suggested that mast cells were derived from primitive mesenchyme (26,27).…”

“…In the course of investigating the development of mature mast cells from rat peritoneal exudates, it was reported that spleen and bone marrow also contain MCp that are capable of maturing into mast cells in vitro (32), thus confirming the in vivo results of Kitamura (34,39,47) showing that the bone marrow is the major source of MCp. With the ability to culture bone marrow derived mast cells the search for the mast cell committed precursor (MCcp) accelerated (25). The capacity to successfully culture bone marrow derived mast cells independent of feeder layers, depended upon the addition of factors to the media that specifically simulated growth and differentiation of mast cells.…”