Patients with chronic bronchitis differ in their mast cell subtypes as compared with normal subjects.

Mast cells were isolated by enzymatic digestion from lung tissue obtained from patients with chronic obstructive lung disease and from normal subjects. Two mast cell subtypes could be demonstrated in human lung tissue. Mast cell subtypes were differentiated in formalin-sensitive and formalin-insensitive mast cells. It appeared that compared with normal individuals, patients suffering from chronic bronchitis had increased numbers of mast cells of the formalin-sensitive type, whereas patients with emphysema had reduced numbers, but the same ratio, of both mast cell subtypes.