ABSTRACT
Asthma is an increasingly prevalent, often severe disease and the common cause of significant respiratory morbidity in the developed world. Mast cells play an important role in allergy diseases, but the role of epithelial mast cells in the asthma remains controversial. In this research, we assessed the number of the mast cells in the lungs of the ovalbumin (OVA)-induced murine asthma model. BALB/C mice, 6-week age, were intraperitoneally injected with 10% OVA 200 microliter with aluminum hydroxide on days 0 and 10 and challenged via the airways with 1% OVA for 20 min on days 17, 24, 31, 38, 45 by intra-tracheal inhalation, and assessed after 7 days of last challenges, respectively. The control group was assessed with sensitization only. The lungs were stained with hematoxylin-eosin, Congo red, toluidine blue, and periodic acid Schiff-hematoxylin, respectively. The mast cells were observed by light microscope and analyzed with image analysis system. There were no intraepithelial mast cells in the lungs of the normal and control mice. The number of intraepithelial mast cells increased in proportion to OVA challenge times in the epithelium of lungs. This result shows that the intraepithelial mast cells of lungs in the OVA-induced asthma model increased along with the challenge times. So the intraepithelial mast cells may play an impotent role in the OVA-induced asthma model.
