Review: Diagnostic and therapeutic applications of rat basophilic leukemia cells

The research into understanding of the immunological processes is often difficult due to several factors complicating the isolation and culturing of primary degranulating cells like mast cells and basophils. The establishment of rat basophilic leukemia (RBL) cell line as an efficient and reliable experimental research tool was considered a major advance toward the understanding of the wild-type mast cell population's biology. The development of sub-clone RBL-IV (HR+) led to the isolation of histamine-secreting RBL-2H3 cell line. Since then, RBL-2H3 cells have been extensively used for studying the IgE high affinity receptor (FcɛRI) interactions with their ligand, the IgE antibody. This cell line has been employed for generating human and more recently canine and equine FcɛRIα-transfected RBL cell lines facilitating an assessment of the residues involved in the complementary interaction between the IgE molecules from these species and their cognate high affinity receptor. A proteomics-based approach to the definition of IgE-receptor-mediated signaling pathways was also carried out using this cell line. Furthermore, RBL-2H3 cells have the potential of being used to assess the potential allergenicity of antigens to humans and other animals like dogs and horses which are known to suffer from similar allergic manifestations.