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MAST CELL PRODUCTS AND TISSUE CALCIFICATION
Author(s) -
Selye Hans,
Tuchweber Beatriz
Publication year - 1965
Publication title -
quarterly journal of experimental physiology and cognate medical sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.925
H-Index - 101
eISSN - 1469-445X
pISSN - 0033-5541
DOI - 10.1113/expphysiol.1965.sp001781
Subject(s) - histamine , mast cell , connective tissue , serotonin , chemistry , metachromasia , calcification , compound 48/80 , heparin , calcium , liberation , cell , endocrinology , medicine , pathology , immunology , degranulation , biochemistry , biology , receptor , staining , organic chemistry , in vitro
Following a brief definition of the concept of calcergy, experiments are reported which show that in rats pretreated by a single intravenous injection of lead acetate, topical connective‐tissue calcification can be produced at sites where minute doses of various mast‐cell dischargers, or of the mast‐cell components serotonin and histamine, are subcutaneously injected. Heparin, another mast‐cell constituent, and numerous additional compounds which were administered to test the specificity of the response, were found to possess little or no effect, at least at comparably low dose levels. Histochemical studies showed that the development of tissue calcification obtained by mast‐cell dischargers on the one hand, and by mast‐cell constituents on the other, is essentially different. Polymyxin and compound 48/80 first produce a mast‐cell discharge, followed by calcium incrustation of the metachromatic granules, while serotonin and histamine cause no mast‐cell discharge at comparable dose levels, but produce a fine precipitate of calcium salts in and around the connective‐tissue fibres at the injection sites. It is suggested that, when elicited by mast‐cell dischargers, this form of calcergy depends upon the liberation of serotonin and histamine or related compounds, while if serotonin or histamine are administered as such, they cause calcification directly without the intermediary of a mast‐cell discharge.