Mast Cells are Important Modifiers of Autoimmune Disease: With so Much Evidence, Why is There Still Controversy?

There is abundant evidence that mast cells are active participants in events that mediate tissue damage in autoimmune disease. Disease-associated increases in mast cell numbers accompanied by mast cell degranulation and elaboration of numerous mast cell mediators at sites of inflammation are commonl...

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Main Authors:	Brown, Melissa A., Hatfield, Julianne K.
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	Frontiers Research Foundation 2012
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3369183/

id	pubmed-3369183
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-33691832012-06-13 Mast Cells are Important Modifiers of Autoimmune Disease: With so Much Evidence, Why is There Still Controversy? Brown, Melissa A. Hatfield, Julianne K. Immunology There is abundant evidence that mast cells are active participants in events that mediate tissue damage in autoimmune disease. Disease-associated increases in mast cell numbers accompanied by mast cell degranulation and elaboration of numerous mast cell mediators at sites of inflammation are commonly observed in many human autoimmune diseases including multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and bullous pemphigoid. In animal models, treatment with mast cell stabilizing drugs or mast cell ablation can result in diminished disease. A variety of receptors including those engaged by antibody, complement, pathogens, and intrinsic danger signals are implicated in mast cell activation in disease. Similar to their role as first responders in infection settings, mast cells likely orchestrate early recruitment of immune cells, including neutrophils, to the sites of autoimmune destruction. This co-localization promotes cellular crosstalk and activation and results in the amplification of the local inflammatory response thereby promoting and sustaining tissue damage. Despite the evidence, there is still a debate regarding the relative role of mast cells in these processes. However, by definition, mast cells can only act as accessory cells to the self-reactive T and/or antibody driven autoimmune responses. Thus, when evaluating mast cell involvement using existing and somewhat imperfect animal models of disease, their importance is sometimes obscured. However, these potent immune cells are undoubtedly major contributors to autoimmunity and should be considered as important targets for therapeutic disease intervention. Frontiers Research Foundation 2012-06-07 /pmc/articles/PMC3369183/ /pubmed/22701454 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2012.00147 Text en Copyright © 2012 Brown and Hatfield. http://www.frontiersin.org/licenseagreement This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial License, which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in other forums, provided the original authors and source are credited.
repository_type	Open Access Journal
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building	NCBI PubMed
collection	Online Access
language	English
format	Online
author	Brown, Melissa A. Hatfield, Julianne K.
spellingShingle	Brown, Melissa A. Hatfield, Julianne K. Mast Cells are Important Modifiers of Autoimmune Disease: With so Much Evidence, Why is There Still Controversy?
author_facet	Brown, Melissa A. Hatfield, Julianne K.
author_sort	Brown, Melissa A.
title	Mast Cells are Important Modifiers of Autoimmune Disease: With so Much Evidence, Why is There Still Controversy?
title_short	Mast Cells are Important Modifiers of Autoimmune Disease: With so Much Evidence, Why is There Still Controversy?
title_full	Mast Cells are Important Modifiers of Autoimmune Disease: With so Much Evidence, Why is There Still Controversy?
title_fullStr	Mast Cells are Important Modifiers of Autoimmune Disease: With so Much Evidence, Why is There Still Controversy?
title_full_unstemmed	Mast Cells are Important Modifiers of Autoimmune Disease: With so Much Evidence, Why is There Still Controversy?
title_sort	mast cells are important modifiers of autoimmune disease: with so much evidence, why is there still controversy?
description	There is abundant evidence that mast cells are active participants in events that mediate tissue damage in autoimmune disease. Disease-associated increases in mast cell numbers accompanied by mast cell degranulation and elaboration of numerous mast cell mediators at sites of inflammation are commonly observed in many human autoimmune diseases including multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and bullous pemphigoid. In animal models, treatment with mast cell stabilizing drugs or mast cell ablation can result in diminished disease. A variety of receptors including those engaged by antibody, complement, pathogens, and intrinsic danger signals are implicated in mast cell activation in disease. Similar to their role as first responders in infection settings, mast cells likely orchestrate early recruitment of immune cells, including neutrophils, to the sites of autoimmune destruction. This co-localization promotes cellular crosstalk and activation and results in the amplification of the local inflammatory response thereby promoting and sustaining tissue damage. Despite the evidence, there is still a debate regarding the relative role of mast cells in these processes. However, by definition, mast cells can only act as accessory cells to the self-reactive T and/or antibody driven autoimmune responses. Thus, when evaluating mast cell involvement using existing and somewhat imperfect animal models of disease, their importance is sometimes obscured. However, these potent immune cells are undoubtedly major contributors to autoimmunity and should be considered as important targets for therapeutic disease intervention.
publisher	Frontiers Research Foundation
publishDate	2012
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3369183/
_version_	1611535153967923200

Mast Cells are Important Modifiers of Autoimmune Disease: With so Much Evidence, Why is There Still Controversy?

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