The mast cell as an effector of connective tissue degradation: A study of matrix susceptibility to human mast cells

Mast cells and their mediators in cutaneous wound healing – active participants or innocent bystanders?

“…Latent TGF-b is activated, C3 is activated to C3a, and the neuropeptides VIP and CGRP are inactivated. In contrast, tryptase impedes keratinocyte proliferation by inhibition of the mitogenic effect of epidermal growth factors like a-thrombin and EGF (25,28,125,126).…”

“…Furthermore, proliferation of fibroblasts is even more markedly induced than by tryptase, neuropeptides SP and VIP are degradated, and pro-IL-1b is converted to IL-1b (28,73,(125)(126)(127)(128). Chymase has recently also been shown to induce the formation of angiotensin II (129) which in turn can markedly stimulate the proliferation of keratinocytes (130).…”

Immunolocalization of Stromelysin-Related Protein in Murine Mast Cell Granules

“…Although the precise role that mast cells play in these disease states is unknown, their specific distribution adjacent to erosion sites suggests at least an indirect function in matrix destruc tion and/or remodelling [3], Consistent with this interpreta tion is the finding [4] that human tryptase, a mast-cell-de rived serine protease, is capable of activating latent matrix metalloproteinase-3 (stromelysin) in vitro, suggesting one mechanism by which mast cells might participate in matrix remodelling in vivo.…”

Rodent α‐chymases are elastase‐like proteases

“…Although the physiological function of this protease is still unclear, it is probably involved in various allergic inflammatory reactions, cardiovascular diseases, and chronic inflammatory diseases [2]. For example, the proposed actions of chymase include induction of microvascular leakage [3], inflammatory cell accumulation [4], neutrophil and lymphocyte chemotaxis [5], stimulation of bronchial gland secretion [6], mast cell degranulation [7], extracellular matrix degradation [8][9][10][11][12][13], and cytokine metabolism [14][15][16][17].Based on phylogenetic analyses of a large set of cDNAderived sequences and comparison of the substrate preferences of a smaller set of purified enzymes, mammalian chymases have been divided into two families, the a-and b-chymase families [18,19]. Mice and rats have a number of chymase isozymes that belong to the a-chymase family (mouse mast cell protease-5/mMCP-5 and rat mast cell protease-5/rMCP-5) and the b-chymase family (mMCP-1, 2, 4, rMCP-1, 2, 4) [20,21].…”

“…Although the physiological function of this protease is still unclear, it is probably involved in various allergic inflammatory reactions, cardiovascular diseases, and chronic inflammatory diseases [2]. For example, the proposed actions of chymase include induction of microvascular leakage [3], inflammatory cell accumulation [4], neutrophil and lymphocyte chemotaxis [5], stimulation of bronchial gland secretion [6], mast cell degranulation [7], extracellular matrix degradation [8][9][10][11][12][13], and cytokine metabolism [14][15][16][17].…”