Mast cells are immune cells of hematopoietic origin that circulate as precursor cells prior to migration into vascularized tissues where they mature and undergo terminal differentiation in response to different cytokines within the local environment. Mast cells are well known as important regulators of inflammatory processes in peripheral tissues and recent studies support the involvement of mast cells in mediating the inflammatory response to cerebral hypoxia-ischemia in both the neonatal and adult brain. To better study mast cell function in vivo, it is important to be able to identify their environment-specific phenotype, as well as to study their interaction with other neural cells in vitro. Previous such studies of mast cells have relied on mast cells isolated from gut or bone marrow, or on a number of mast cell lines, all of which may behave differently from brain mast cells. The purpose of this study was to develop a technique for the isolation of mast cells from neonatal rat brain and to characterize these cells following hypoxia and hypoxia-ischemia. We adapted a previously described technique of coupling an antibody to the mast cell-specific FcεR1 receptor to a MACS microbead for the selective removal of intact mast cells from a neonatal brain preparation. We have isolated toluidine blue-positive brain mast cells that provide substrate for both protein analysis and in vitro studies. These cells express proteins previously used to specifically identify microglia in the brain, Iba-1 and coronin-1a. A subpopulation of mast cells in vivo also expresses Iba-1. Thus, we report a novel method for isolation of brain mast cells suitable for the study of mast cell phenotype under a variety of conditions. Further, we suggest that the use of proteins such as Iba-1 for the identification of microglia in the brain includes the caveat that mast cells may also be detected.

This article considers the attitude of the governing elite in sixteenthcentury England to the minority languages spoken by subjects within their jurisdiction, concentrating on Cornish, Welsh and Irish. Perhaps influenced by the tendency of nineteenth-century nationalists to equate nationality and language, historians have assumed that Tudor governments were hostile to languages other than English and wished to suppress them. An examination of a variety of sources leads to the suggestion that this was not the case. There was a certain amount of apprehension in the political sphere in the 1530s but in the second half of the century cultural perception of languages dominated as attempts to spread the Protestant faith led to an encouragement of the range of vernaculars. The conclusion points to parallels between sixteenthcentury and contemporary sympathy towards minority cultures in the context of the devolution debate.

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WHEN Philip II of Spain sent his Armada to invade England in an attempt to cut off support for the Dutch rebels, he did so in the name of God and the Catholic faith. Elizabeth, in turn recognised the propaganda value of an identification of monarch, country and Protestant church at times of national crisis. It was widely believed that, as the Spaniards wanted to overthrow the Protestant church, the English Catholics must have been pro-Spain. Elizabeth had always regarded the Catholics as a danger to her government; it was now easy for her to portray them as traitors to their country. The attempts by Catholics to claim to be patriotic were, understandably, treated with scepticism. But this had not always been the case. The purpose of this article is to outline the struggle to monopolise patriotic propaganda which took place between the government and the English Catholics throughout Elizabeth’s reign.

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