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Updated: Mar 14, 2026
An Ex vivo Mast Cell Degranulation Assay using Crude Peritoneal Exudate Cells and Natural Antigen Stimulation
Published on: April 27, 2021
Hydrocortisone and dexamethasone dose-dependently stabilize mast cells derived from rat peritoneum
Tomohiro Mori1, Nozomu Abe2, Kazutomo Saito2
1Department of Physiology, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Seiryo-cho, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan.
Background:
Besides their anti-inflammatory properties, corticosteroid drugs exert anti-allergic effects. Exocytosis of mast cells is electrophysiologically detected as the increase in the whole-cell membrane capacitance (Cm). Therefore, the lack of such increase after exposure to the drugs suggests their mast cell-stabilizing effects.
Methods:
We examined the effects of 1, 10, 100 and 200μM hydrocortisone or dexamethasone on the degranulation from rat peritoneal mast cells. Employing the whole-cell patch-clamp recording technique, we also tested their effects on the Cm during exocytosis.
Results:
At relatively lower concentrations (1, 10μM), both hydrocortisone and dexamethasone did not significantly affect the degranulation from mast cells and the increase in the Cm induced by GTP-γ-S. Nevertheless, at higher doses (100, 200μM), these drugs inhibited the degranulation from mast cells and markedly suppressed the GTP-γ-S-induced increase in the Cm.
Conclusions:
Our results provided electrophysiological evidence for the first time that corticosteroid drugs, such as hydrocortisone and dexamethasone, inhibited the exocytotic process of mast cells in a dose-dependent manner. The mast cell-stabilizing effects of these drugs may be attributable to their "non-genomic" action, by which they exert rapid anti-allergic effects.
