Clinical and experimental allergy : journal of the British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology
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Mast cells (MCs) arise from haematopoietic stem cells. We have recently reported that CD34(+) progenitors derived from human bone marrow (BM) develop into tryptase+, chymase+ MCs when cultured in the presence of recombinant human stem cell factor (rhSCF) and recombinant human IL-6 (rhIL-6). In an experiment for the expression of chymase during differentiation, chymase+ cells were detected in human BM, but tryptase+ cells were not found. ⋯ Our findings suggested that chymase is present not only in MCs but also in CD34(+)CD117(-) BM progenitors, but that its origin is different from the MC lineage.