The relationship between the gut and mesenteric lymph node in the kinetics of mucosal mast cells (MMC) was further analysed. A Trichinella-induced synchronous proliferation of MMC occurred in the intestine of thymus-bearing and not in athymic mice, both at sites of parasite invasion (jejunum) and elsewhere (caecum) and in the mesenteric lymph node. The mastocytopoietic ability could be adoptively transferred with immune mesenteric lymph node cells to the jejunum and caecum of infected thymus-bearing recipients. The enhanced mastocytopoiesis which was both antigen- and thymus-dependent, was only observed for the stroma intestinal mast cells (IMC) and not for the intraepithelially located globule leucocytes (GL). The data suggest a common source for IMC in intestinal mucosae and support the idea that IMC and GL are two independent cell populations.
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