Tryptase Profile of the Rat Skin Mast Cell Population During the Wound Healing

Mast cells cyclically synthesize and excrete a wide range of biogenesis products with different biological activities into the extracellular matrix and are regulators of local homeostasis both in normal conditions and in pathology – inflammation, oncogenesis, etc. The relative specificity of classical histochemical methods for detecting mast cells in relation to chromogenic to substrates causes certain difficulties in the selective study of the components of the secretome of mast cells, for example, heparin, histamine, chymase or tryptase. Therefore, immunomorphological techniques have become very popular, which identify specific substrates and allow differentiation of the components of the mast cell secretome. Mediators produced by mast cells promote neoangiogenesis, fibrillogenesis and re-epithelialization during the repair process.

The aim of our work was to study the tryptase profile of the mast cell population of rat skin during the wound processusing an original combined method of immunohistochemical staining.

Material and methods. The experiment involved 12 Wistar rats divided into two groups – intact (n=6) and with the existing wound process of the skin in the withers (n=6). The tryptase profile of mast cells was assessed on the 7th day of the wound process in comparison with the control group.

Results. The results obtained showed a significant increase in the number of tryptase-positive mast cells on the 7th day of the wound process in the skin against the background of a general increase in the population of mast cells. Intragranular tryptase reserve was significantly increased. In contrast to the control, where mast cells with single tryptase-positive granules dominated, during the wound process, cells of this type were practically not detected in the skin (43.69±2.9% and 8.55±0.9%). The content of tryptase-positive mast cells with complete filling of the cytoplasm in the control group and the group of animals with a wound process was 14.24±1.2% and 38.03±2.9%, respectively.

Conclusion. Thus, when modeling a wound, an increase in tryptase synthesis is detected both in individual MCs and within the entire MC population. This fact indicates that mast cell proteases can become a potential therapeutic target for improving wound regeneration by correcting immunogenesis, inflammation and fiber formation.

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