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Piecemeal Degranulation of Mast Cells in the Inflammatory Eyelid Lesions of Interleukin-4 Transgenic Mice. Evidence of Mast Cell Histamine Release In Vivo by Diamine Oxidase-Gold Enzyme-Affinity Ultrastructural Cytochemistry
- Source :
- Blood; June 1994, Vol. 83 Issue: 12 p3600-3612, 13p
- Publication Year :
- 1994
-
Abstract
- We used light and electron microscopy to analyze the eyelid inflammation that develops in transgenic mice that overex-press interleukin-4 (IL-4; Tepper et al. Cell62:457, 1990). Analysis of alkaline Giemsa-stained plastic sections examined by light microscopy (Dvorak et al, J Exp Med132:558, 1970), as well as by routine transmission electron microscopy, indicated that the mast cells in the inflammatory eyelid lesions were undergoing piecemeal degranulation, a form of secretion in which the cells' cytoplasmic granules exhibit characteristic morphologic changes that are thought to be associated with the prolonged, vesicle-mediated release of the granules' constituents. Moreover, by using a newly reported enzyme affinity-gold method, which stains histamine based on binding to diamine oxidase-gold (Dvorak et al, J Histochem Cytochem41:787, 1993), we show that these activated mast cells had released much of their histamine content. The eyelid lesions also exhibited increased numbers of mast cells; interstitial fibrosis, particularly around cutaneous nerves and blood vessels; activated fibroblasts; focal axonal damage; venules with endothelial cells containing numerous vesiculo-vacuolar organelles; and infiltrates of neutrophils and eosinophils. Our findings illustrate that overexpression of the IL-4 gene in vivo can result in eyelid lesions associated with piecemeal degranulation of mast cells, as well as tissue fibrosis and a variety of other pathologic changes. These results also represent the first direct morphologic evidence for histamine secretion by mast cells in vivo.
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00064971 and 15280020
- Volume :
- 83
- Issue :
- 12
- Database :
- Supplemental Index
- Journal :
- Blood
- Publication Type :
- Periodical
- Accession number :
- ejs57136720
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1182/blood.V83.12.3600.3600