Number and affinity of receptors for IgE on enriched populations of isolated rat intestinal mast cells.

Recently, particular attention has been paid to a unique subpopulation of mast cells located in the intestinal mucosa of rodents and man (Befus et al., 1982a, b; Strobel, Busuttil & Ferguson, 1983; Ruitenberg et al., 1982). These cells, presently referred to as mucosal mast cells (MMC), are morphologically, histochemically and functionally distinct from the more extensively studied connective tissue mast cells (Befus et al. 1982b; Pearce et al., 1982). Our ability to characterize the MMC more fully has been markedly enhanced by the development of techniques to enrich populations of this cell to purities of over 60% (mean 65.6 +/- 5.2%) using density centrifugation over discontinuous Percoll gradients. In this communication, we report the results of our studies to determine the number and affinity characteristics of IgG Fc (Fc epsilon) receptors on enriched MMC isolated from the intestine of rats with parasite-induced mast cell hyperplasia.