DEGRANULATION AND HISTAMINE RELEASE IN FOCAL ANTIGEN-ANTI BODY REACTION BY MEANS OF MICROELECTROPHORESIS IN A SINGLE RAT MESENTERY MAST CELL

Abstract

Several observations (1-5) have suggested that an antigen-antibody combination takes place on the mast cell surface this triggering the cellular processes leading to histamine release and morphological changes in the mast cells. It is as yet unknown whether or not intracellular antigen-antibody-induced histamine release can be precluded, in any type of immunologic reaction in mast cells. Even though an antigen-antibody combination takes place on the mast cell surface, a question arises as to whether the reaction occurs over the whole cell membrane in all-or-none fashion or at a limited portion where antigen is applied locally. Recent findings (6-9) indicate that both degranulation and histamine release from a single rat mast cell can be provoked locally on the cell surface at the site of topical application of chemical histamine releasers by means of microelectrophoresis, while these reactions are not induced by their intracellular applications (6, 7, 9).
The present experiments were undertaken to see whether antigen-antibody reaction in mast cell is a local reaction or a kind of integral reaction spreading over the whole cell, and also to determine whether the site of the reaction is inside or outside of the mast cell, using two types of antigen-antibody reaction: 1) applying antigen to the mast cell of an actively sensitized rat, or to the mast cell sensitized passively in vitro with homologous antibody, and 2) applying a rabbit anti-rat serum to the non-sensitized mast cell. Antigen and antiserum were applied by means of microelectrophoresis, topically or diffusely on the cell surface or intracellularly, to a single rat mesentery mast cell.