The Morphology and Behavior of Neoplastic Mast Cells Cultivated in Vitro

Abstract

Fragments from two mast cell tumors of the dog have been cultured in vitro. Studies on the living and on fixed and stained preparations revealed the following: Only mast cells grew out from the original tumor fragments though these contained other types of cells. They grew in some of the roller tube cultures in a sheet resembling an epithelium but in hanging drop cultures they lay separate and were irregularly spindle or star-shaped with long protoplasmic processes. The cytoplasmic granules of the proliferating mast cells varied in size, number, and tinctorial properties. In most of the cells they stained metachromatically, in occasional cells some of the granules only could be stained, and in a few none could be stained.

Ribonuclease-Gold Labels Heparin in Human Mast Cell Granules: New Use for an Ultrastructural Enzyme Affinity Technique

“…Heparin has been used to inhibit RNase in biochemical experiments for years (Paff et al 1947(Paff et al ,1952Chirgwin et al 1979;Jaques 1980). Therefore, it is not surprising that we have found an imageable affinity between R-G and HMC granule heparin that should prove useful in future studies of mast cell biology.…”

“…In addition, this unique property of heparin has served to inhibit RNase in biochemical studies and to isolate or remove a wide variety of materials with heparin binding sites from mixed materials (Paff et al 1947(Paff et al ,1952Lindahl and Höök 1978;Chirgwin et al 1979;Jaques 1980).…”

A Neoplastic Connective Tissue Mast Cell Capable of Continuous Growth In Tissue Culture

“…Coverslip preparations were first examined in the 4th passage and only mast cells were present at that time. Both Paff et al (13) and Zitcer et al (16) have previously reported that only mast cells appeared in their cultures. In the early passages cytologic study of this mast cell was limited to staining with Giemsa's stain, observation of living cells, and supravital staining with toluidine blue.…”

Ribonuclease‐gold ultrastructural localization of heparin in isolated human lung mast cells stimulated to undergo anaphylactic degranulation and recovery in vitro

“…The direct visualization of these findings was made possible by the use of an enzyme-affinity-gold ultrastructural cytochemical method [5] for which a new use has been discovered, based on enzyme inhibition [7]. Thus, the ultrastructural localization of heparin depends on the well-known ribonuclease inhibitory property of heparin [20][21][22][23][24]. For example, sub-cellular sites of the inhibitor (heparin) are revealed in well-preserved, standard electron microscopic samples when the gold-tagged enzyme, ribonuclease, is used to stain the sample en grid.…”