Absence of meningeal mast cells in the Mitf mutant mouse

Alba Sabaté San José; Petur Henry Petersen

doi:10.3389/fncel.2024.1337621

Absence of meningeal mast cells in the Mitf mutant mouse

Front Cell Neurosci. 2024 Feb 9:18:1337621. doi: 10.3389/fncel.2024.1337621. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Alba Sabaté San José^{1

2}, Petur Henry Petersen¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Anatomy, Biomedical Center, Faculty of Medicine, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland.
² ULB Neuroscience Institute (UNI), Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium.

Abstract

Mast cells (MCs) are located in the meninges of the central nervous system (CNS), where they play key roles in the immune response. MC-deficient mice are advantageous in delineating the role of MCs in the immune response in vivo. In this study, we illustrate that a mutation in microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (Mitf) affects meningeal MC number in a dosage-dependent manner. C57BL/6J Mitf null mice lack meningeal MCs completely, whereas heterozygous mice have on average 25% fewer MCs. Mitf heterozygous mice might be a valuable tool to study the role of MCs in the meninges.

Keywords: aging; inflammation; mast cells; meninges; microphthalmia-associated transcription factor.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This research was funded by the University of Iceland.