Abstract
Summary
It has been observed that following mild trauma to the skin of mice, degranulation of mast cells occurs in the subcutaneous connective tissue and is followed by the appearance of metachromatic granules within the cytoplasm of surrounding fibroblasts. Investigation of this phenomenon by subcutaneous injection of isolated mast cell granules showed that fibroblasts began to ingest the granules within 15 minutes after injection. Granulation appeared to be maximal within one to two hours and digestion of granules was apparent within four hours. These observations on the fibroblastic uptake of mast cell granules were confirmed by using S35-labeled mast cell granules for injection. It is suggested that this phenomenon represents one aspect of local detoxification in the tissues.
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