Different hormonal responses of mast cells in gastric mucosa and dermis in the rat

Our plain-English summary of Different hormonal responses of mast cells in gastric mucosa and dermis in the rat, by T. Räsänen (Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology, 1967).

The study

• Author: T. Räsänen
• Journal: Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology
• Published: 1967;2(2):118-23
• Cited by: 4 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

The responses of the gastric mucosal mast cells and the subcutaneous mast cells of the abdominal skin of the rat after administration of ACTH, heparin, and asbestos, were studied. The superficial part of the gastric mucosa contained roughly 5 times as many mast cells as the subcutaneous connective tissue. About three-fourths of the gastric mucosal mast cells were degranulated under the influence of ACTH, but the subcutaneous mast cells showed no changes in number and granulation. The observed difference indicates possibly that mast cells in the gastric mucosa and in the epidermis may have important special, but clearly differing, functions. In the gastric mucosa the sensitiveness of mast cells is possibly connected with their function as a peripheral mediator of stimulation of gastric secretion.

In plain English

This was a laboratory experiment in rats, reported by one author at the University of Helsinki in 1967. Four-month-old Wistar rats were split into six groups of 9 or 10. They received ACTH (a hormone), heparin, asbestos injected into the abdomen, ACTH plus asbestos or heparin, or salt water as a control. The type of asbestos was not stated. Asbestos was used as a source of peritoneal irritation, or "foreign body stress". The study looked only at mast cells, a type of tissue cell, in the stomach lining and under the skin of the abdomen. It did not study any asbestos disease. The superficial part of the stomach lining held roughly 5 times as many mast cells per square millimetre as the tissue under the skin. Under ACTH, about three-fourths of the stomach-lining mast cells lost their granules. Asbestos alone produced a weak decrease in stomach-lining mast cell counts. Mast cells under the skin stayed fairly stable in all groups. The author concluded that the two kinds of mast cells may have clearly differing functions and that asbestos somewhat enhanced ACTH's effect.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: animal experiment (rats given injections, then tissue mast cells counted under the microscope)
• Who was studied: Four-month-old Wistar strain rats, 9 in the first group and 10 in each of the five other groups (six groups in all); laboratory of the Second Department of Pathology, University of Helsinki, Finland; article received April 1967
• Exposure: Asbestos (fiber type not stated), 1.0 mg in a sterile aqueous suspension of 1.0 ml, given as a single injection into the abdomen. It was given either at the start of ACTH treatment or alone 4 days before the rats were killed. Other groups received ACTH-zinc intramuscularly 4 times 2 iu at 24-hour intervals, heparin 9 times 1.0 mg at 12-hour intervals, ACTH plus heparin, or saline as controls.
• Main results:
  • The superficial part of the stomach lining contained roughly 5 times as many mast cells as the connective tissue under the skin; mast cells were counted per square millimetre of tissue.
  • Under ACTH, about three-fourths of the stomach-lining mast cells lost their granules (degranulated).
  • In rats given ACTH together with heparin or together with asbestos, the stomach-lining mast cell count also decreased clearly (P less than 0.001).
  • In rats given asbestos alone (peritoneal irritation), there was a weak decrease in stomach-lining mast cell counts.
  • In rats given heparin, there was no clear increase in the mast cell count.
  • Mast cells under the skin stayed fairly stable in number in all groups, whether given ACTH, asbestos or heparin.
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that mast cells in the stomach lining and in the skin may have special but clearly differing functions, possibly linked in the stomach to stimulating gastric secretion. The author also concluded that the effect of ACTH was enhanced somewhat by the foreign body stress of asbestos, and that heparin did not seem to affect the effect of ACTH on stomach-lining mast cells.

Related studies

• Early response of gastric mucosa to ingested asbestos dust and the dissolution of nickel — S.H. Zaidi, G.S. Gupta, et al. (1976)
• Mast cells and inhalation of asbestos in rats — M.M. Wagner, R.E. Edwards, et al. (1984)
• Asbestos-induced fibrosis in rats: increase in lung mast cells and autacoid contents — I. Keith, R. Day, et al. (1987)
• Acetic acid induces cell death: an in vitro study using normal rat gastric mucosal cell line and rat and human gastric cancer and mesothelioma cell lines — S. Okabe, T. Okamoto, et al. (2014)
• Angiogenesis correlates with macrophage and mast cell infiltration in lung tissue of animals exposed to fluoro-edenite fibers — G. Musumeci, C. Loreto, et al. (2016)
• Cytogenetic response to asbestos fibers in cultured human primary mesothelial cells from 10 different donors — K. Pelin, A. Hirvonen, et al. (1995)

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