Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China.
Key Laboratory of Hydrodynamics (Ministry of Education), Department of Engineering Mechanics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
Int J Biol Sci. 2018 Jun 22;14(9):1142-1152. doi: 10.7150/ijbs.26738. eCollection 2018.
The distribution and location of mast cells are closely related to their physiological and pathological functions, such as allergic responses, immunity, and fibrosis, and are used in acupuncture. In this study, the distribution of mast cells was observed, and mechanical clues for understanding their distribution based on mechanical niches were explored. By toluidine blue staining and immunohistochemical staining, we examined the distribution and location of mast cells in rat skin and found that mast cells are distributed in a spatially nonuniform manner, preferring to locate at regions in the tissue and extracellular matrix with stiffness changes. experiments for studying the distribution of rat basophilic leukemia (RBL-2H3) mast cell line on poly-di-methyl-siloxane (PDMS) substrates with stiffness variations were performed. It was found that RBL-2H3 cells migrate and tend to remain in the areas with stiffness variations. The present research suggests that changing the stiffness of local tissues may stimulate mast cell recruitment, which may be the method by which some traditional Chinese medicine treatments, such as acupuncture. On the basis of the origin of mast cells and our experimental results, we predict that mast cells exist in tissues that contain permeable capillaries and prefer regions with stiffness changes. We discussed this prediction using examples of specific tissues from some cases.
肥大细胞的分布和位置与其生理和病理功能密切相关，如过敏反应、免疫和纤维化，并在针灸中得到应用。在这项研究中，观察了肥大细胞的分布，并探索了基于机械小生境理解其分布的机械线索。通过甲苯胺蓝染色和免疫组织化学染色，我们检查了大鼠皮肤中肥大细胞的分布和位置，发现肥大细胞呈空间不均匀分布，倾向于定位在组织和细胞外基质中硬度变化的区域。我们还进行了实验，研究了在具有硬度变化的聚二甲基硅氧烷（PDMS）基底上大鼠嗜碱性白血病（RBL-2H3）肥大细胞系的分布。结果发现，RBL-2H3 细胞迁移并倾向于留在硬度变化的区域。本研究表明，改变局部组织的硬度可能会刺激肥大细胞的募集，这可能是一些传统中药治疗方法（如针灸）的作用方式。基于肥大细胞的起源和我们的实验结果，我们预测肥大细胞存在于含有可渗透毛细血管的组织中，并倾向于硬度变化的区域。我们通过一些具体组织的例子来讨论这个预测。
