EDITORIAL

Mast cell activation

Monitoring mast cell activation by prostaglandin D₂ in vivo

S-E Dahlén, M Kumlin

Experimental Asthma and Allergy Research, The National Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Professor S-E Dahlén
Experimental Asthma and Allergy Research, The National Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm SE-171 77, Sweden; se.dahlen@imm.ki.se

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Prostaglandin D₂ is a useful in vivo marker of mast cell activation in humans

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Keywords: asthma; mast cells; prostaglandin D2; plasma 9,11ß-PGF2

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

While the pro-inflammatory role of eosinophilic granulocytes in asthma is currently under debate, an increasing body of evidence suggests that mast cells may indeed orchestrate many of the characteristic pathophysiological changes in asthma.¹ There are also indications that the mast cell may be an effector cell in other lung diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease^2–4 and lung fibrosis.⁵ Given the location of mast cells at multiple sites within the airways,¹ they clearly have the potential to function as sensors of alterations in the microenvironment—be it to inhaled or bloodborne substances, microbes, or other insults that require a prompt host defence reaction. Their versatility is demonstrated by the great number of stimuli that trigger mast cell activation (fig 1). In addition to classical IgE dependent degranulation of mast cells, transduction pathways resulting in mast cell activation may be triggered by, for example, adenosine,⁶ hyperosmolarity,⁷ and lipopolysaccharide.⁸

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