Bi-directional relationship of in vitro mast cell-nerve communication observed by confocal laser scanning microscopy

Communication between nerves and mast cells is a prototypic demonstration of neuro-immune interaction. Recently, we used an in vitro co-culture approach comprising cultured murine superior cervical ganglia (SCG) and rat basophilic leukemia (RBL) cells to study this interaction. Previously, we concentrated mainly on the activation signal from neurites to mast cells (RBL). However, it is proposed that mast cell-nerve communication is not a one-sided relationship but a bi-directional one. In the present work, we studied the communication from mast cells to neurites. We observed that binding of anti-IgE receptor antibodies to mast cells increases calcium ion concentration [Ca2+]i in SCG neurites. This indicates that mast cell-nerve communication is bi-directional. Confocal fluorescence microscopic images indicated that [Ca2+]i in neurites increased after an increase of [Ca2+]i in mast cells. The lag-time of neurite activation was several times longer than that of mast cell activation. The correlation coefficient between the lag-times for mast cell and nerve activation was calculated to be 0.81. In addition, the fluorescence images showed that calcium signals in SCG neurites were able to extend to a long distance (100-200 microm) from the site where mast cells (RBL) attached to neurites.