Mast Cell Increase in Mouse Leukæmia

Abstract

As early as 1891 Westphal¹ recognized that mast cells tend to aggregate in the tissue adjacent to cancers rather than in the tumour itself. While this is not universally true for all types of tumours, some work^2,3 with a number of different kinds of neoplasms suggests that this is substantially correct. The subject has been recently reviewed by Riley⁴. Recently, Scott⁵ showed that in rats with transplanted sarcomas a high percentage of the mesenteric mast cells were disrupted. This communication is concerned with work which we undertook to learn something of the number and state of integrity of such cells in leukæmic AKR mice in a tissue not primarily involved in the leukæmic process.