Mast cells in the gastrointestinal tract.

The morphology and functions of gastrointestinal mast cells (MCs) under physiological and pathological conditions were described. Special attention was paid to the MCs origin, differentiation and morphological and biochemical aspects of their degranulation. Mast cells are important component of normal architecture of the gastrointestinal tract. Many substances released from MCs during degranulation are biologically active and mediate numerous processes: blood flow regulation, epithelial and endothelial permeability, mucosal secretion, gastrointestinal tract motility, immunological events related to the antigens of various origin, angiogenesis, cancer development. Thus MC is often considered as an important agent in pathogenesis of many gastrointestinal diseases. The gastrointestinal diseases which was described in this paper are following: bacterial and parasitic infections, peptic ulcer, ulcerative colitis, Leśniowski-Crohn's disease, inflammatory polyps, intestinal graft-versus-host reaction, neoplastic tumors, mastocytosis, intestinal ischemia.