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C3a, mast cells, and asthma

Department of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation, University of Leicester, UK

Dear Sir,

I am writing regarding the manuscript by Thangam and colleagues you published recently (1) . The authors suggest that C3a plays an important role in the activation of mast cells in asthma through the up-regulation of its effects by airway smooth muscle. This is based on experiments using the human mast cell line LAD2, which is derived from a patient with mast cell leukemia. This manuscript is misleading as it ignores a wealth of consistent literature demonstrating that human lung mast cells and human lung fragments do not exhibit any response to C3a or C5a (2 3 4) . The relevance of this manuscript to asthma is therefore questionable.

Yours sincerely

Dr. Peter Bradding

Reader in Respiratory Medicine

REFERENCES

1. Thangam, E. B., Venkatesha, R. T., Zaidi, A. K., Jordan-Sciutto, K. L., Goncharov, D. A., Krymskaya, V. P., Amrani, Y., Panettieri, R. A., Jr, Ali, H. (2005) Airway smooth muscle cells enhance C3a-induced mast cell degranulation following cell-cell contact. FASEB J. 19,798-800[Abstract/Free Full Text]
2. Fureder, W., Agis, H., Willheim, M., Bankl, H. C., Maier, U., Kishi, K., Muller, M. R., Czerwenka, K., Radaszkiewicz, T., Butterfield, J. H. (1995) Differential expression of complement receptors on human basophils and mast cells. Evidence for mast cell heterogeneity and CD88/C5aR expression on skin mast cells. J. Immunol. 155,3152-3160[Abstract]
3. Tainsh, K. R., Liu, W. L., Lau, H. Y., Cohen, J., Pearce, F. L. (1992) Mast cell heterogeneity in man: unique functional properties of skin mast cells in response to a range of polycationic stimuli. Immunopharmacology 24,171-180[CrossRef][Medline]
4. Schulman, E. S., Post, T. J., Henson, P. M., Giclas, P. C. (1988) Differential effects of the complement peptides, C5a and C5a des Arg on human basophil and lung mast cell histamine release. J. Clin. Invest. 81,918-923

This article has been cited by other articles:

				A. K. Zaidi, Y. Amrani, R. A. Panettieri, and H. Ali Response to C3a, mast cells, and asthma FASEB J, February 1, 2006; 20(2): 199 - 199. [Full Text] [PDF]

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Bradding, P. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Bradding, P. Related Collections Related Articles