Metz Martin, Grimbaldeston Michele A, Nakae Susumu, Piliponsky Adrian M, Tsai Mindy, Galli Stephen J
Department of Pathology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305-5324, USA.
Immunol Rev. 2007 Jun;217:304-28. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-065X.2007.00520.x.
Observations of increased numbers of mast cells at sites of chronic inflammation have been reported for over a hundred years. Light and electron microscopic evidence of mast cell activation at such sites, taken together with the known functions of the diverse mediators, cytokines, and growth factors that can be secreted by appropriately activated mast cells, have suggested a wide range of possible functions for mast cells in promoting (or suppressing) many features of chronic inflammation. Similarly, these and other lines of evidence have implicated mast cells in a variety of adaptive or pathological responses that are associated with persistent inflammation at the affected sites. Definitively characterizing the importance of mast cells in chronic inflammation in humans is difficult. However, mice that genetically lack mast cells, especially those which can undergo engraftment with wildtype or genetically altered mast cells, provide a means to investigate the importance of mast cells and specific mast cell functions or products in diverse models of chronic inflammation. Such work has confirmed that mast cells can significantly influence multiple features of chronic inflammatory responses, through diverse effects that can either promote or, perhaps more surprisingly, suppress aspects of these responses.
一百多年来，已有关于慢性炎症部位肥大细胞数量增加的观察报告。在这些部位肥大细胞活化的光镜和电镜证据，以及适当活化的肥大细胞可分泌的多种介质、细胞因子和生长因子的已知功能，提示肥大细胞在促进（或抑制）慢性炎症的许多特征方面具有广泛的可能功能。同样，这些及其他证据表明肥大细胞参与了与受影响部位持续性炎症相关的多种适应性或病理反应。明确界定肥大细胞在人类慢性炎症中的重要性很困难。然而，基因上缺乏肥大细胞的小鼠，尤其是那些能够移植野生型或基因改变的肥大细胞的小鼠，为研究肥大细胞以及特定肥大细胞功能或产物在多种慢性炎症模型中的重要性提供了一种手段。此类研究证实，肥大细胞可通过促进或（或许更令人惊讶的是）抑制这些反应的某些方面的多种作用，显著影响慢性炎症反应的多个特征。
