Accuri C6 Flow Cytometer System
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© by The Society for Leukocyte Biology
Journal of Leukocyte Biology, doi:10.1189/jlb.0609400

Received for publication June 10, 2009.
Revised July 4, 2009.
Accepted for publication July 20, 2009.

Article

Basophils preferentially express mouse mast cell protease 11 among the mast cell tryptase family in contrast to mast cells

Tsukasa Ugajin *{dagger}, Toshiyuki Kojima {dagger}, Kaori Mukai {dagger}, Kazushige Obata {dagger}, Yohei Kawano {dagger}, Yoshiyuki Minegishi {dagger}, Yoshinobu Eishi {ddagger}, Hiroo Yokozeki *, and Hajime Karasuyama {dagger}@

Departments of *Dermatology,{dagger}Immune Regulation, and{ddagger}Human Pathology, Tokyo Medical and Dental University Graduate School, Tokyo, Japan

@ To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: karasuyama.mbch{at}tmd.ac.jp.


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Abstract

Tryptases and chymases are the major proteins stored and secreted by mast cells, and they have various biological functions. However, the nature of proteases produced by basophils has been poorly characterized, particularly in mice. mMCP-11 is the most recently discovered mast cell tryptase in mice and was originally identified as Prss34, which is transcribed in some mast cell-like cell lines and at the early stage in the culture of BMMC with IL-3. Curiously, Prss34 is preferentially expressed in the BM and spleen among normal tissues in contrast to other mast cell tryptases. Therefore, it remains elusive what types of cells express mMCP-11 in vivo. Here, we show that mMCP-11 is highly expressed by primary basophils and to a much lesser extent, by some mast cells. Prss34 transcripts were detected abundantly in primary and cultured basophils and very weakly in peritoneal mast cells or cultured BMMC. Conversely, transcripts for mMCP-6 and mMCP-7 tryptases were preferentially expressed by cultured and peritoneal mast cells but not basophils. We established a mMCP-11-specific mAb and showed that mMCP-11 proteins are indeed expressed by primary basophils and those infiltrating the affected tissues during allergic inflammation and parasitic infections. Some primary mast cells also expressed mMCP-11 proteins, albeit at a much lower level. Thus, basophils rather than mast cells are the major source of mMCP-11. This is the first study to demonstrate that mouse basophils produce a trypsin-like protease.

Key Words: allergic inflammation • parasite infection • mMCP-6 • mMCP-7