Functional characterization of human mast cells cultured from adult peripheral blood.

Mast cells are important effector cells of allergy and techniques for culturing human mast cells have been developed in recent years. In the current investigation, we studied the phenotypic and functional characteristics of mast cells cultured from adult human peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Mature human mast cells were obtained by first culturing mononuclear cells in methylcellulose containing stem cell factor (SCF), IL-3 and IL-6 for six weeks and subsequently in liquid medium containing SCF and IL-6 for another six weeks.