Mast cells in allergic diseases

Abstract

The mast cell remains at the core of our understanding of allergic inflammation and is thus a major target for future therapeutic interventions in allergy. Anyone wanting an up to date and detailed review of the mechanisms of mast cell activation and regulation will need to look no further than this slim volume, which contains a series of cutting edge reviews of the mechanisms and functions of the mast cell with particular reference to allergy. I particularly enjoyed the chapter on adaptor molecules from Tkaczyk et al. and the review of mast cell knock-in mice by Tsai. Other sections address the role of oxidant stress and chemokines in activating and regulating mast cells, the potential contribution of mast cells to airways remodelling and the complex relationship between mast cells and sinusitis. Together with a chapter on mast cell ion channels, there are reviews of the effects of β-adrenoceptor agonists and corticosteroids on mast cell function. Perhaps the most useful chapter was the review by Saito of mast cell-specific gene up-regulation and cluster analysis, which summarizes the recent knowledge of the functional genomics of the mast cell. While this information has been published elsewhere, it is very helpful to see it brought together like this and put in context. Key aspects, such as mast cell subset specific genes and steroid responsiveness are addressed, as well as key differences between human and mouse mast cells. Overall, the book is well written and pretty up to date. The principal question to be raised against this and indeed any similar book is whether people who are working in the field use books as a means of identifying literature and bringing themselves up to date. This volume is number 87 in a series of reviews that goes back to 1939 and as such it lives up to its predecessors but with the passage of time and the increasing speed of scientific development this type of publication may become less viable than it used to be. However, for the moment this volume represents a useful landmark in mast cell biology and can be commended to all working in the field of immunopharmacology and allergy. In terms of sales, I suspect that front line researchers increasingly rely on the web to identify references and reviews but a book like this would be most useful to someone who was starting out in the field and wanted to bring themselves up to speed in the area that they have chosen to study and the related biology.