Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Mouse bone marrow-derived mast cells (BMMC) change their phenotype when cultured with fibroblasts

Journal Article · · Fed. Proc., Fed. Am. Soc. Exp. Biol.; (United States)
OSTI ID:6917098

The heparin-containing mast cells (HP-MC) that reside in the connective tissues of the mouse, but not the chondroitin sulfate containing mast cells in the gastrointestinal mucosa, stain with safranin when exposed to alcian blue/safranin. Mouse BMMC (the presumptive in vitro counterpart of the in vivo differentiated mucosal mast cell) were cultured for 2-14 days with confluent skin-derived 3T3 fibroblasts in RPMI-1640 containing 10% fetal calf serum and 50% WEHI-3 conditioned medium. Although the BMMC adhered to the fibroblast monolayer, they continued to divide, probably due to the presence of interleukin-3 in the conditioned medium. The mast cells remained viable throughout the period of co-culture, since they failed to release LDG and because they increased their histamine content per cell approx.15-fold. After 8-9 days of co-culture, >50% of the BMMC changed histochemically becoming safranin positive. At this time, 30-50% of the (/sup 35/S)glycosaminoglycans on the proteoglycans synthesized by these co-cultured mass cells were heparin, whereas the initial BMMC synthesized proteoglycans containing only chondroitin sulfate E. That interleukin 3-dependent mouse BMMC can be induced to undergo a phenotypic change so as to express characteristics of a HP-MC suggests that the tissue microenvironment determines the differentiated characteristics of these cells.

Research Organization:
Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
OSTI ID:
6917098
Report Number(s):
CONF-8604222-
Journal Information:
Fed. Proc., Fed. Am. Soc. Exp. Biol.; (United States), Journal Name: Fed. Proc., Fed. Am. Soc. Exp. Biol.; (United States) Vol. 45:4; ISSN FEPRA
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English