Mast Cells, Mediators and Disease

In 1879 Paul Ehrlich first described the mast cell as a tissue fixed cell contain ing many granules which, when stained with basic dyes, such as toluidine blue, changed the colour spectrum of the dye in a process called meta chromasia. Since this early description, pathologists, physicians and pharmacologists have been fascinated by this cell on account of its central involvement in human allergic diseases. Approximately four decades after Ehrlich's first description of the mast cell, Prausnitz and Kiistner reported their pioneer experiment, demonstrating that the immediate skin wheal response to allergen could be passively transferred with serum. They named the antigen-specific serum factor reagin. A further four and one half decades had to pass before the connection between the mast cell and reagin could be made with the identification of reagin as an immunoglobulin E by Johansson and Ishizaka and its unique property to bind with high affinity to specific receptors on mast cells and basophils. Meanwhile in the 1920s Coca published a series of papers in which he described the clinical features of acute allergic responses and first used the term atopy. This, together with the fundamental pharmacological studies of Sir Henry Dale in identifying histamine as one mediator of the acute ana phylactic reaction, provided the second approach which eventually linked the mast cell to allergic tissue reactions. Indeed, it was Best, working in Dale's group who first showed that histamine was a chemical stored in mast cells.

List of contents

1 Phylogeny and ontogeny of basophils, mast cells and eosinophils.- 2 The fine structure of human basophils and mast cells.- 3 The receptor for immunoglobulin E.- 4 Preformed mediators of human mast cells and basophils.- 5 Mast cells and newly-generated lipid mediators.- 6 Mast cell heterogeneity.- 7 Stimulus-secretion coupling in mast cells and basophils.- 8 Inflammatory cells in allergic disease.- 9 Target tissues for mediators in human allergic reactions.- 10 Modulation of mast cell mediator secretion by drugs used in the treatment of allergic diseases.

About the author

Prof. Stephen Holgate, MRC Clinical Professor of Immunopharmacology, Division of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Southhampton School of Medicine. Applying basic science to the clinical interface in allergy and asthma has been the guiding principle of Prof. Stephen Holgate's career. This has involved him in environmental and genetic epidemiology, physiology, cell and molecular biology of disease processes as they occur in humans. An AAAAI member since 1986 and Fellow from 1993, Professor Holgate has been active in the field of allergy and immunology both in the United Kingdom and overseas and in 2001 received the Academy's Honorary Fellow Award. He was President of the British Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (BSACI) from 1990-93 and the Robert Cook Memorial Lecturer in 1995 and 2000. He received the RCP London Graham Bull Prize for research and was elected an honorary member of the Association of Physicians in UK and Ireland following the delivery of the Sir William Osler Lecture in 2003. He has been an active contributor to the Collegium Internationale Allergologicum since 1990. Professor Holgate is a member of the Infection, Inflammation and Repair Division in the School of Medicine, University of Southampton at Southampton General Hospital, UK and since 1987 has held a Medical Research Council (MRC) Clinical Professorship. He received his undergraduate medical training at Charing Cross Hospital, London and specialised in respiratory medicine and allergy. He holds Fellowships from the Royal Colleges of Physicians, Pathologists, Institute of Biology and Academy of Medical Sciences. He is a member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution and has been a censor of the Royal College of Physicians. He has served on a number of Government Committees including the Sub-committee for Efficacy and Adverse Drug Reactions of the CSM (SEAR), MRC Project Grant Committee, Systems Board, Cross Board Group and most recently Councils Subcommittee on Corporate Policy and Evaluation (SCoPE), its Clinical Research Oversight Group (CROG) and is Chairman of Councils new Subcommittee on Evaluation (SOE). He has been Chairman of the UK Department of Health Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollution and has been appointed as Chairman of the UK Government (DEFA) Expert Panel on Air Quality Standards and Chairman of the Science Council's Science in Health Group. He has been a member of the Royal Commission of Environmental Pollution since 2002. He serves as a member of the Board of Directors for the World Allergy Organization (WAO). Professor Holgate's wwork has been recognised with a Scientific Achievement Award of the IAACI in 1994, the Rhone-Poulenc Rorer World Health Award in 1995, the King Faisal International Prize in Medicine in 1999 and Doctorates Hon Causa at University of Ferrara, Italy and Jagellonian University, Krakow, Poland in 1997 and 1999 respectively. He was elected to the Polish Academy of Arts and Science in 2001, received the Royal Society of Medicine Ellison Cliffe Medal in 2003 and the University of Ghent Gold Medal for Achievement in Clinical Science in 2004. According to the ISI Prof. Holgate was 8th most frequently cited author between 1990-2000 in the field of Biomedical Sciences in the United Kingdom and in 2002 became a member of ISI's most highly cited researcher databas.

Report

`... presents comprehensive material that will interest immunologists, pharmacologists and clinicians engaged in the field of allergy.'
Eicosanoids, 3/3, 1990

Product details

• Assisted by: S. T. Holgate (Editor), Stephen T. Holgate (Editor), Stephe T Holgate (Editor), Stephen T Holgate (Editor)
• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 18.10.2013
• EAN: 9789401070720
• ISBN: 978-94-0-107072-0
• No. of pages: 288
• Illustrations: 288 p.
• Series: Immunology and Medicine; Immunology and Medicine
• Subject: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Medicine > Clinical medicine