Kiernan J A
J Anat. 1976 Apr;121(Pt 2):303-11.
A search for mast cells has been made in the brains of 18 mammalian species in 13 families in the orders Insectivora, Primates, Rodentia and Carnivora. In the larger animals, only the diencephalon and olfactory bulbs were examined. Mast cells were identified by virtue of their heparin-containing granules, which are stained by Alcian blue 8GX and, metachromatically, by toluidine blue 0. Within the cerebral parenchyma, mast cells were confined to the dorsal diencephalon of Erinaceus europaeus (hedgehog), Tupaia glis (tree-shrew) and Nycticebus coucang (slow loris). Some cells were next to capillaries; others were not. Mast cells were sometimes found, though rarely, in the intracerebral perivascular connective tissue leptomeninges and choroid plexuses of some of the other species examined. It is concluded that pericapillary cells (pericytes), which have been called mast cells by some investigators, are not in fact mast cells since there is no evidence for the presence of heparin. The functions of mast cells in the brain are unknown.
对食虫目、灵长目、啮齿目和食肉目13个科的18种哺乳动物的大脑进行了肥大细胞搜索。在较大的动物中，仅检查了间脑和嗅球。肥大细胞通过其含肝素的颗粒来识别，这些颗粒用阿尔辛蓝8GX染色，并用甲苯胺蓝0进行异染。在脑实质内，肥大细胞局限于刺猬、树鼩和懒猴的间脑背侧。一些细胞靠近毛细血管，另一些则不然。在其他一些被检查的物种的脑内血管周围结缔组织软脑膜和脉络丛中，有时也能发现肥大细胞，不过很少见。得出的结论是，一些研究者所称的毛细血管周细胞（周细胞）实际上并非肥大细胞，因为没有证据表明存在肝素。大脑中肥大细胞的功能尚不清楚。
