Human lung-derived mature mast cells cultured alone or with mouse 3T3 fibroblasts maintain an ultrastructural phenotype different from that of human mast cells that develop from human cord blood cells cultured with 3T3 fibroblasts.

Culture systems designed to maintain or develop human mast cells have proved difficult, yet these systems would provide valuable resources for future investigations of human mast cell biology. Cocultures of either isolated mature human lung mast cells (Levi-Schaffer et al., J Immunol 1987, 139:494-500) or human cord blood mononuclear cells (Furitsu, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 1989, 86:10039-10043) with 3T3 embryonic mouse skin fibroblasts have implicated fibroblasts as an important factor in the successful maintenance and development of human mast cells in vitro. The authors cultured isolated, mature human lung mast cells either with or without 3T3 cells for 1 month and examined their ultrastructural phenotype. Mast cell viability in each circumstance was equivalent, but mast cell yield was improved in the presence of 3T3 cells. The ultrastructural phenotype was identical in both culture systems. Mast cells were shown to maintain the phenotype of their in vivo lung counterparts (ie, scroll granules predominanted, and numerous lipid bodies were present). This ultrastructural phenotype differs from that of mast cells that develop in cocultures of human cord blood cells and 3T3 cells, where developing mast cells with crystalline granules and few lipid bodies prevail, a phenotype much like that of human skin mast cells in vivo (Furitsu, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 1989, 86:10039-10043).