Proliferation and differentiation in culture of mast cell progenitors derived from mast cell-deficient mice of genotype W/Wv.

Mice of genotype W/Wv have less than 1% of normal mast cells in the skin, stomach, and cecum. In order to further clarify the mechanism of this deficiency, we studied committed mast cell progenitors and multipotent progenitors, which are capable of mast cell differentiation in clonal culture. The relative concentration of mast cell progenitors in the bone marrow, spleen, and peripheral blood of W/Wv mice was similar to that of +/+ mice. However, the cellularity of the marrows of W/Wv mice was 54% of that of their normal littermates. Identification of mast cells was established by metachromatic staining with toluidine blue, transmission electron microscopy, and demonstration of membrane receptors for immunoglobulin E. The time course of colony formation and the morphology of W/Wv mast cell colonies in culture was identical to that of normal littermates. The percentages of mast cells in individual multi-lineage colonies were extremely variable. The histamine content of mast cells derived from W/Wv mice was similar to that of mast cells from +/+ mice. These studies demonstrated the normal capacity for differentiation and proliferation in culture of mast cell progenitors from W/Wv mice.