Diamine oxidase-gold ultrastructural localization of histamine in human skin biopsies containing mast cells stimulated to degranulate in vivo by exposure to recombinant human stem cell factor

Abstract

Stem cell factor (SCF) has a major role in hematopoiesis and in the regulation of mast cell development and function. For example, recombinant human SCF (rhSCF) can induce the development of human mast cells from precursor cells in vitro, stimulate mediator release from human skin mast cells in vitro, and promote both the development and functional activation of human skin mast cells in vivo. In the present study, we used a new ultrastructural enzyme-affinity method, employing diamine oxidase (DAO)-conjugated gold particles (DAO-gold), to detect histamine in skin biopsies obtained from patients with breast carcinomas who were receiving daily subcutaneous (SC) injections of rhSCF in a phase I study of this cytokine. We examined control biopsies obtained at sites remote from rhSCF injection as well as biopsies of rhSCF-injected skin that were obtained within 2 hours and 30 minutes of the SC injection of rhSCF at that site. The rhSCF-injected sites (which clinically exhibited a wheal-and-flare response), but not the control sites, contained mast cells undergoing regulated secretion by granule extrusion. The DAO-gold-affinity method detected histamine in electron-dense granules of mast cells in control and injected skin biopsies; however, the altered matrix of membrane-free, extruded mast cell granules was largely unreactive with DAO-gold. Notably, DAO-gold bound strongly to fibrin deposits and collagen fibers that were adjacent to degranulated mast cells. These findings represent the first morphologic evidence of histamine secretion by classical granule exocytosis in human mast cells in vivo.