Woodbury R G, Miller H R, Huntley J F, Newlands G F, Palliser A C, Wakelin D
Nature. 1984;312(5993):450-2. doi: 10.1038/312450a0.
Infestation of the gastrointestinal tract by parasitic nematodes is invariably associated with mucosal mastocytosis, which is a thymus-dependent phenomenon in parasitized rats, and is adoptively transferable with a T cell-enriched population of thoracic duct lymphocytes. When derived by in vitro culture, mucosal mast cells (MMC) arise from a bone marrow precursor after stimulation by T cell-derived factors. In rats infected with the nematode Trichinella spiralis, mucosal mastocytosis is temporally associated with the immune expulsion of the adult worms whereas in the case of Nippostrongylus brasiliensis, mastocytosis is frequently observed to occur after worm expulsion has been completed. Consequently, there has been doubt as to whether MMC are active and serve a functional role in the expulsion of rat intestinal nematodes. MMC contain and secrete a neutral proteinase, rat mast cell protease II (RMCP II); detection and assay of secreted RMCP II therefore provides a direct measurement of MMC activity. Here we describe the release of this enzyme into the blood of rats infected with N. brasiliensis or T. spiralis. Our results show that the systemic secretion of RMCP II coincides with the immune expulsion of these nematodes, demonstrating clearly for the first time that rat MMC are functionally active during the immune elimination of primary nematode infections.
寄生线虫对胃肠道的感染总是与黏膜肥大细胞增多症相关，这在被寄生的大鼠中是一种依赖胸腺的现象，并且可以通过富含T细胞的胸导管淋巴细胞群体进行过继转移。当通过体外培养获得时，黏膜肥大细胞（MMC）在受到T细胞衍生因子刺激后从骨髓前体产生。在感染线虫旋毛虫的大鼠中，黏膜肥大细胞增多症在时间上与成虫的免疫排出相关，而在巴西日圆线虫的情况下，肥大细胞增多症经常在驱虫完成后出现。因此，人们怀疑MMC是否活跃并在大鼠肠道线虫的排出中发挥功能作用。MMC含有并分泌一种中性蛋白酶，即大鼠肥大细胞蛋白酶II（RMCP II）；因此，对分泌的RMCP II进行检测和测定可以直接衡量MMC的活性。在此，我们描述了这种酶在感染巴西日圆线虫或旋毛虫的大鼠血液中的释放情况。我们的结果表明，RMCP II的全身分泌与这些线虫的免疫排出同时发生，首次明确证明大鼠MMC在原发性线虫感染的免疫消除过程中具有功能活性。
