Abstract
Today in the modern world, allergic diseases, also described as atopic
allergies, are classified as a type of multifactorial disorder due to
the complex interplay between genetics, environment, and socioeconomic
factors that influence the disease’s manifestation, severity, and one’s
predisposition to allergic diseases. It is undeniable that many reported
studies have pointed out that the mast cell is one of the main key
players involved in triggering an allergic reaction. In order to improve
our current understanding of the molecular and cellular mechanisms
underlying allergy, various mast cell lines have been employed in
vitro to study the pathogenesis of allergic diseases for the past
decades. However, there is no consensus on many fundamental aspects
associated with their use, such as the effects of culture media
composition and the type of inducer used for cell degranulation. As the
standardization of research protocols and disease models is crucial, we
hereby present the outcome of a systematic review of scientific articles
that used three major in vitro mast cell lines (HMC-1, LAD2, and
RBL-2H3) to study allergy. This systematic review described the cell
source, culture conditions, inducers used for degranulation, and
mediators released for examination. We hope that the present systematic
review may help to standardize the use of in vitro mast cell
lines in allergy research and serve as a user’s guide to understand the
fundamental aspects of allergy as well to develop an effective allergy
therapy in the future for the betterment of human good health and
wellbeing.
Keywords: Allergy, Mast cells, In vitro , HMC-1, LAD2, RBL-2H3