“…Expression of the Kit protein has been reported in both normal cells [e.g. haematopoietic progenitors (Simmons et al, 1994), normal mature MC (Metcalfe, 2005), Cajal cells (Huizinga et al, 1995), melanocytes (Halaban et al, 1993), and germ cells (Strohmeyer et al, 1995)] and neoplastic cells from gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GIST) (Andersson et al, 2002), seminomas (Strohmeyer et al, 1995), small cell lung cancer (Sekido et al, 1991), colon cancer (Toyota et al, 1993), neuroblastoma (Beck et al, 1995), breast cancer (Hines et al, 1995), acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) (Bene et al, 1998), T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) (Bene et al, 1998), multiple myeloma (Escribano et al, 1998b), myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) , myeloproliferative disorders (MPD) (Nakata et al, 1995), B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (Bravo et al, 2000) and B-cell precursor ALL (Bene et al, 1998). In normal cells, Kit has been shown to play a major role in haematopoiesis (in the differentiation of erythroid, lymphoid, megakaryocytic and myeloid precursors) (Nocka et al, 1989), gametogenesis (Kissel et al, 2000), MC development and function (Metcalfe, 2005;Valent et al, 2005), melanogenesis (Nocka et al, 1989;Halaban et al, 1993) and gastrointestinal function (Miettinen & Lasota, 2005).…”