title: The majority of brain mast cells in B10.PL mice is present in the hippocampal formation.
abstract: In the healthy mammalian CNS, mast cells (MCs) are thought to be located mostly in the thalamus. In this study, we have systematically assessed the presence of MCs in the hippocampal formation (HF) and in the thalamus of normal male and female B10.PL mice. Giemsa(+) and Toluidine Blue(+) MCs were detected by histomorphometric analyses at perivascular and intraparenchymal sites of both the hippocampus and the entorhinal cortex. We found a mean number of 4.4 MCs in the HF of female and 3.3 MCs in male B10.PL mice. In contrast to the HF, no MCs were present in the thalamus of these mice. Notably, all HF-MCs showed immunoreactivity for Kit, the receptor for the MC growth and maturation factor SCF, as assessed by FITC-avidin/Kit double labelling. We demonstrate that the majority of brain MCs is found in the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex of B10.PL mice, though the total number of MCs is small compared to other mouse strains or rats. The presence of most brain MCs in the HF of B10.PL mice suggests a potential role of MCs in hippocampal physiology and pathology.
authors.affiliation: Center for Anatomy, Institute of Cell Biology and Neurobiology, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Schumannstr. 20-21, Germany. sven.hendrix@charite.de
authors.forename: Sven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hendrix
authors.forename: Katharina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Warnke
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Siebenhaar
authors.forename: Eva M J
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Peters
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nitsch
authors.forename: Marcus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Maurer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001360:Avidin / Q000378:metabolism; D002452:Cell Count / Q000379:methods; D018728:Entorhinal Cortex / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000166:cytology*; D007150:Immunohistochemistry / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008407:Mast Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D051379:Mice; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D011494:Protein Kinases / Q000235:genetics; D019009:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-kit / Q000378:metabolism; D012737:Sex Factors; D013194:Staining and Labeling / Q000379:methods; D013788:Thalamus / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D001360:Avidin; D011494:Protein Kinases; C403405:Smok1 protein, mouse; D019009:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-kit