Abstract
Mucosal mast cells (MMCs) localized in the intestinal mucosa play a key role in the development of IgE-mediated food allergies. Recent advances have revealed that MMCs are a distinctly different population from connective tissue mast cells localized in skin and other connective tissues. MMCs are inducible and transient cells that arise from bone marrow-derived mast cell progenitors, and their numbers increase rapidly during mucosal allergic inflammation. However, the mechanism of the dramatic expansion of MMCs and their cell functions are not well understood. Here, we review recent findings on the mechanisms of MMC differentiation and expansion, and we discuss the potential for the inducers of differentiation and expansion to serve as targets for food allergy therapy. In addition, we also discuss the mechanism by which oral immunotherapy, a promising treatment for food allergy patients, induces unresponsiveness to food allergens and the roles of MMCs in this process. Research focusing on MMCs should provide useful information for understanding the underlying mechanisms of food allergies in order to further advance the treatment of food allergies.
Highlights
Humans have long suffered from food allergies
We found that SMADs were always weakly phosphorylated in bone marrow-derived mast cells (BMMCs) by Transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) contained in the medium, even without the addition of TGF-β
Intestinal Mucosal mast cells (MMCs) play a central role in the development of food-induced disorders mediated by mast cell activation, including systemic food allergies
Summary
Humans have long suffered from food allergies. Hippocrates (460-377 BC), an ancient Greek physician, wrote about a suspected case of allergy to cheese [1]. Typical food allergies are IgE-mediated, and the main symptoms are caused by immediate hypersensitivity reactions in which food allergen-specific IgE and mast cells play a central role. Recent studies have shown that many of these patients are negative for food allergen-specific IgE in serum but positive for the intestinal mucosa, which leads to a local IgE-mediated food allergy reaction [10,12]. Based on these findings, Aguilera-Lizarraga et al [10] proposed a new disease concept called “food-induced disorders mediated by mast cell activation”. We summarize the differentiation mechanisms and functions of intestinal mucosal mast cells and discuss the possibility of treating food-induced disorders by regulating them
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