Stochastic model for mast cell proliferation in culture of murine peritoneal cells

✍ Scribed by Toshimi Kobayashi; Tatsutoshi Nakahata

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1989
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 465 KB
• Volume: 138
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0021-9541
• DOI: 10.1002/jcp.1041380105

✦ Synopsis

We recently identified two types of mast cell colonies derived from murine peritoneal cells: type 1 and type 2. Type 1 mast cell colonies consisted of berberine sulfate( + )-safranin( + ) connective tissue-type mast cells (CTMC) and were derived from mature CTMC in the heaviest fraction obtained by Percoll density gradient centrifugation. In contrast, type 2 mast cell colonies consisted of alcian blue( + )-berberine sulfate(-)-safranin(-) mucosal mast cells (MMC) and were derived from immature progenitors in low density fractions. We replated a total of 60 type 1 and 60 type 2 mast cell colonies and examined their capability for producing secondary colonies. Although all of the primary colonies yielded secondary colonies, the replating efficiencies of individual colonies varied over a wide range.

Cumulative distributions of secondary colonies from both type 1 and type 2 primary colonies could be fitted well by gamma distributions obtained by computer simulation. These findings are in agreement with the stochastic model for CTMC-and MMC proliferation. Cytological analyses of secondary colonies from primary type 1 colonies revealed heterogeneous distributions of alcian blue( + 1safranin(-)-berberine sulfate(-) mast cells, suggesting that transdifferentiation from mature CTMC to safranin(-)-berberine sulfate(-) mast cells is also governed by stochastic mechanisms.