Mast cell burden and reticulin fibrosis in the myeloproliferative neoplasms: A computer-assisted image analysis study.

Posted by rob on May 12, 2009 under Uncategorized | Comments are off for this article

Authors: Ahmed A, Powers MP, Youker KA, Rice L, Ewton A, Dunphy CH, Chang CC
The mast cell has been associated with fibrosis in many different tissues, organs, and different disease processes including hematopoietic malignancies. Mast cells are often increased in the bone marrow of patients with primary bone marrow disorders, and patients with systemic mastocytosis often have a second concomitant neoplastic disease of the bone marrow. The goals of the current study were to determine the role the mast cell has in the pathogenesis of myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) and to correlate the mast cell burden with the degree of reticulin fibrosis. We used computer-assisted image analysis of bone marrow core biopsies stained for mast cell tryptase from patients with myeloproliferative neoplas…