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"Mast Cells are Important Modifiers of Autoimmune Disease: With so Much Evidence, Why is There..."

Kyla

ᴀɴɴɪᴇ ɢꜱᴀᴍᴩᴇʟ
Messages
721
Location
Canada
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3369183/
(Open access)

This article is from 2012, but doesn't seem to have been discussed here, and personally I had never heard this theory before!




Mast Cells are Important Modifiers of Autoimmune Disease: With so Much Evidence, Why is There Still Controversy?
Melissa A. Brown1,* and Julianne K. Hatfield1
1Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA
Edited by: Toshiaki Kawakami, La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, USA
Reviewed by: Miriam Wittmann, University of Leeds, UK; John Ryan, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA
*Correspondence: Melissa A. Brown, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, 303 E. Chicago Avenue, Tarry 6-701, Chicago, IL 60611, USA. e-mail: ude.nretsewhtron@21nworb-m
This article was submitted to Frontiers in Inflammation, a specialty of Frontiers in Immunology.
Author information ▼ Article notes ► Copyright and License information ►
This article has been cited by other articles in PMC.

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Abstract
There is abundant evidence that mast cells are active participants in events that mediate tissue damage in autoimmune disease. Disease-associated increases in mast cell numbers accompanied by mast cell degranulation and elaboration of numerous mast cell mediators at sites of inflammation are commonly observed in many human autoimmune diseases including multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and bullous pemphigoid. In animal models, treatment with mast cell stabilizing drugs or mast cell ablation can result in diminished disease. A variety of receptors including those engaged by antibody, complement, pathogens, and intrinsic danger signals are implicated in mast cell activation in disease. Similar to their role as first responders in infection settings, mast cells likely orchestrate early recruitment of immune cells, including neutrophils, to the sites of autoimmune destruction. This co-localization promotes cellular crosstalk and activation and results in the amplification of the local inflammatory response thereby promoting and sustaining tissue damage. Despite the evidence, there is still a debate regarding the relative role of mast cells in these processes. However, by definition, mast cells can only act as accessory cells to the self-reactive T and/or antibody driven autoimmune responses. Thus, when evaluating mast cell involvement using existing and somewhat imperfect animal models of disease, their importance is sometimes obscured. However, these potent immune cells are undoubtedly major contributors to autoimmunity and should be considered as important targets for therapeutic disease intervention.

Keywords: mast cells, autoimmunity, neutrophils, MC-T cell crosstalk, mast cell deficient mice
 

Jonathan Edwards

"Gibberish"
Messages
5,256
It doesn't really say anything except that mast cells are one of the cell types that is involved in inflammation - like neutrophils and macrophages. Mast cells have antibody receptors on their surface too, and so will activate when an autoimmune reaction occurs. Nothing the slightest bit new or surprising about that. They get very excited about how important mast cells are in the title and the first few sentences but by the end admit that they are just accessories to the crime. A non-event I fear. These 'Frontiers' journals are not really journals - you pay to be published there and more or less anything gets taken as far as I can see.
 

Jonathan Edwards

"Gibberish"
Messages
5,256
@Jonathan Edwards, ok, so this article aside, what are you saying? mast cell activation is just one aspect of inflammation.. and shouldn't be seen as a distinct syndrome? thanks.

No, I wouldn't want to give that inpression. Certain pathways work particularly through mast cells. IgE interacts with mast cell FcE receptors in a very particular way in asthma and allergy. I have no doubt that mast cells are key players in certain special diseases of that sort. (There is also mastocytosis, about which i know rather little.) What I was not convinced by was that mast cells had a special role in autoimmunity. The IgE mediated response of allergy is to my mind unrelated to autoimmunity.