HISTOCHEMICAL AND IMMUNOHISTOCHEMICAL OBRERVATIONS ON HETEROGENEITY IN MAST CELLS OF RAT / 解剖学报

ABSTRACT

The heterogeneity is one of the main points in study on the mast cells. In the present paper, the heterogeneity of skin connective mast cells (CTMC) in comparison with that of gastrointestinal mucosal mast cells (MMC) with both toluidine blue staining and immunostaining was studied. The results showed that the CTMC fixed with formaldehyde could be demonstrated with routine toluidine blue staining, whereas the MMC could be demonstrated only with lower pH and prolonged staining duration. In immunostaining almost all of the CTMC showed serotoninimmunoreactivity, and only 10% of the CTMC showed substance P-immunoreactivity; while approximate 35% of the MMC showed serotonin-immunoreacivity and no substance P-immunoreactivity was found. The results indicate that the mast cell heterogeneity may be found in toluidine blue staining as well as in immunostaining.