Monitoring of mast cells activation for control of health status in military personnel

Abstract

Background: Mast cells are located in various body compartments and particularly in places with highest likelihood of changes in tissue microenvironment: skin, respiratory system, gut and mesentery, along of blood and lymphatic vessels. Mast cells are sensitive to such changes, which may be induced, but not limited by the mechanical stress (compression), increases in tissues fluid volume (edema), pH, abnormal temperatures, harmful dust and ionizing irradiation. Additionally mast cells are sensitive to appearance of various antigens/pathogens, chemical and bacterial toxins, traumatic injury (direct cellular/tissue damage and effects of the products of tissue destruction) and increased concentration of various mediators of inflammation and allergy. Cumulatively, we believe that the monitoring of ongoing levels of mast cell activation is especially valuable to evaluate and to monitor pre-existing and ongoing status of health in military personnel. Objective/Hypothesis: The determination of the pre-existing and monitoring of ongoing levels of mast cells activation is able to provide the critical information on healthy reserves of the body and ability to react on acute challenge. Specific Aims: 1. To establish correlations between individual variations in basal levels of mast cell activation and ability to resist effectively to acute infectious/inflammatory challenge. 2. To evaluate therapeutic potential of mast stabilization. 3. To design and to test the prototypes of implantable mini- sensors to detect blood histamine and mast cell tryptase as most important indicators of the mast cell activation.