| First Author | Takano H | Year | 2009 |
| Journal | Lab Invest | Volume | 89 |
| Issue | 4 | Pages | 446-55 |
| PubMed ID | 19204665 | Mgi Jnum | J:146846 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:3838674 | Doi | 10.1038/labinvest.2008.159 |
| Citation | Takano H, et al. (2009) Involvement of CD44 in mast cell proliferation during terminal differentiation. Lab Invest 89(4):446-55 |
| abstractText | By using the recently established culture system that reproduces the terminal differentiation process of connective tissue-type mast cells, we found significant transcriptional induction of CD44. As CD44 is a primary receptor for hyaluronan (HA), which is one of the major extracellular matrix components, we investigated the role of CD44 in cutaneous mast cells. When co-cultured with fibroblasts, mouse bone marrow-derived cultured mast cells (BMMCs) were found to form clusters in an HA-dependent manner. As compared with BMMCs derived from the wild-type mice, those from the CD44(-/-) mice exhibited impaired growth during the co-cultured period. Furthermore, in the peritoneal cavities and ear tissues, mature mast cells were fewer in number in the CD44(-/-) mice than in the wild-type mice. We investigated roles of CD44 in mast cell proliferation by reconstituting BMMCs into the tissues of mast cell-deficient, Kit(W)/Kit(W-v) mice, and found that the number of metachromatic cells upon acidic toluidine blue staining in the tissues transplanted with CD44(-/-) BMMCs was not significantly changed for 10 weeks, whereas that in the tissues transplanted with the CD44(+/+) BMMCs was significantly increased. These results suggest that CD44 plays a crucial role in the regulation of the cutaneous mast cell number. |
