Abstract: | In cultures of normal mouse hematopoietic cells containing mast cell growth factor develop cells with many features of mast cells. These cells seem heterogeneous with respect to size, cell surface, granules maturity and morphology of nucleus using transmission and scanning electron microscopy. Alcian blue-safranin staining shows that most of the proteoglycan synthesized by cultured mast cells is weakly sulfated and non heparin-mucopolysaccharides. These results support the view that cultured mast cells resemble to mucosal mast cells, and are clearly different from serosal mast cells. |