STUDIES OF CELL-ADHESION AND FLOW CYTOMETRIC ANALYSES OF DEGRANULATION, SURFACE PHENOTYPE, AND VIABILITY USING HUMAN EOSINOPHILS, BASOPHILS, AND MAST-CELLS

Products derived from eosinophils, basophils, and mast cells are consi dered critical to the development of allergic diseases. Studies of the selective recruitment, accumulation, and/or activation of these cells during human allergic inflammatory reactions in vitro and in vivo hav e been facilitated by a wide variety of methods. Some have been develo ped to identify and isolate these cells from a variety of sites, inclu ding blood, airway secretions, and surgical or autopsy tissues. Once e nriched in purity, assays of cell adhesion to endothelium, epithelium, matrix proteins, and purified, immobilized counterligands for integri ns, selectins, or immunoglobulin gene superfamily structures can be pe rformed in vitro under both static and flow conditions. Techniques inv olving flow cytometry, utilizing characteristics of cellular light sca tter and immunofluorescence, have permitted the elucidation of cell su rface phenotype and have aided in quantification of cellular degranula tion and viability. These approaches have yielded new information on t he function of human eosinophils, basophils, and mast cells and have s uggested unique cell-specific pathways of cell recruitment, activation , and survival that may contribute to the pathogenesis of allergic dis eases. (C) 1997 Academic Press.