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Serotonin in Human Mast Cells

Abstract

IT has been demonstrated that, besides heparin and histamine, mast cells contain serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT)1–3. However, serotonin-containing mast cells, having been found exclusively in mice and rats, it has been held that human mast cells contain no serotonin4. Evidence that the mast cells in these two species contain serotonin has been obtained by parallel histological and biochemical investigations and also by serotonin assay in isolated mast cells. Yet hitherto available techniques have failed to disclose direct histochemical proof of the presence of serotonin in mast cells, mast cells in mice and rats lacking the so-called enterochromaffin reactions.

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ENERBÄCK, L. Serotonin in Human Mast Cells. Nature 197, 610–611 (1963). https://doi.org/10.1038/197610a0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/197610a0

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