Studies on the growth of mast cells in rats. Changes in granule size between 1 and 6 months.

Mast cells from rats aged 1 month, 3 months and 5 to 7 months were compared with respect to cell size and secretory granule size and number. With increasing age there was an increase in mean total cell volume accounted for almost entirely by an increase in mean total granule volume/cell even though there was no apparent increase in the number of granules. An increase in histamine content closely paralleled the increase in total granule volume. In each age group, the distribution of equivalent volumes of granule profiles exhibited periodic multimodality consistent with a Poisson distribution of granule volume. We have interpreted these observations in terms of a model in which total granule volume/cell increases through the production of unit granules of uniform size; the increasing size of individual granules we attribute to the fusion of unit granules with each other and with larger granules.