Isolation of tissue mast cells.

Mast cells, unlike other immune effector cells, are not found in the circulation and thus must be obtained from accessible tissues such as gastrointestinal and lung tissue. In this unit, a combination of mechanical fragmentation, enzyme digestion, and centrifugation procedures are used to obtain suspensions enriched for mast cells from gastrointestinal tissue. A support protocol details a procedure for acid toluidine blue staining of mast cells.