Trends in Immunology
Volume 23, Issue 3, 1 March 2002, Pages 151-158
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Review
The role of mast cells in host defense and their subversion by bacterial pathogens

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1471-4906(01)02156-1Get rights and content

Abstract

Mast cells (MCs) play a prominent role in the early immune response to invading pathogenic bacteria. This newly discovered role for MCs involves the release of chemoattractants that recruit neutrophils and the direct phagocytosis and killing of opsonized bacteria. Whereas these activities are clearly beneficial to the host, certain pathogens have evolved mechanisms to evoke anomalous MC responses to the detriment of the host. These include evoking phagocytosis without killing of unopsonized bacteria and the production of toxins that corrupt the release of mediators by MCs. Elucidating how pathogens subvert the activities of MCs could provide clues to limiting the pathological activities of these cells during infectious diseases.

Section snippets

MC types and culture conditions

Before discussing specific results, it is pertinent to review the different types of MC and discuss which types are used typically for studies involving microorganisms. To date, most studies have used pure populations of rodent or human cultured MCs and have shown that their responses are, for the most part, comparable [10]. Rodent MCs are heterogeneous and are categorized as either mucosal-type or connective-tissue-type, based on their tissue locations, staining patterns, content of proteases

MCs have clear protective roles during bacterial infections

Several recent reports in the literature indicate that MCs can mediate a variety of antimicrobial activities. Although some of these antimicrobial functions are similar to those reported for the primary effector cells of the innate immune system, MCs possess certain unique features that make their functions particularly crucial for host defense: (1) MCs are located strategically at the host–environment interface, such that they are one of the first types of inflammatory cell to encounter the

MCs might have deleterious effects during bacterial infections

The appropriate release of mediators by MCs challenged with microbes has clear protective effects for the host, as shown by the in vivo studies described above [44]. Nevertheless, the intrinsic capacity of MCs to induce marked pathological effects by the excessive or inappropriate release of inflammatory mediators might be significant in many infectious situations. There is a growing realization that successful pathogens not only evade or resist the host's inflammatory response but can also

Concluding remarks

There is ample evidence now pointing to a multifaceted and central role for MCs in the host's immune response to bacterial pathogens. MCs are capable of rapid reaction to a wide range of bacteria. The MC responses involve the ingestion and killing of adherent bacteria and a measured mediator response, which is crucial for the early influx of neutrophils to sites of bacterial infection. MCs might contribute also to the processing and presentation of bacterial antigens to immune cells. These

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our appreciation to AMGEN Inc. (Thousand Oaks, CA, USA) and Novartis Biotechnology (Basel, Switzerland) for their continuous and generous help. We also thank Viviane Tricottet for expert advice concerning electron microscopy, and Nadine Ben Hamouda, René Lai-Kuen and Laurence Leriche for expert technical assistance. This work was supported in part by research grants from the NIH (AI 35678 and DK 50814) and ARC (ARC 5203).

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