The Mast Cells

xxix, 498 pp. "...a critical evaluation of the entire polyglot literature (more than 2500 references) on the mast cells from their discovery, almost 100 years ago, to the present. Emphasis is placed on the technology of mast-cell research, the morphology of the mast cells in various species (including histrogenesis, electron microscopy, and embryology), their chemistry and metabolism, the mechanism of mast-cell degranulation, and the role of the mast cells in disease: urticaria pigmentosa and other mastocytoses, mastocytomas in animals and man, connective-tissue diseases, and anaphylaxis. Also included are many of the author's hitherto unpublished observations on organotropic mast-cell dischargers, the newly-discovered phenomenon of "mastopexi" (the binding of foreign materials, especially metals, by mast cells) as well as the participation of mas cells in anaphylactoid inflammation, calciphylaxis and calcergy. The text is illustrated by photographs in black-and-white and color, synopic tables, and diagrams."--jacket