Objective. To determine the consequences of mast cell (MC)-chondrocyte interactions.Methods. Cocultured cells were analyzed histochemically, morphologically, biochemically, and functionally.Results. Cocultured MC adhered to the chondrocytes and remained viable. Chondrocytes cocultured with nonactivated MC produced more proteoglycans than did chondrocytes cultured alone, and these proteoglycans possessed an intact hyaluronic acid-binding region. In contrast, most of the proteoglycans produced by chondrocytes cocultured with activated MC were degraded.
Conclusion. These studies indicate that a complexFrom Mast cells are often present in increased numbers at sites of active cartilage erosion in the joints of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (1-6). The detection of free histamine in the rheumatoid joint (5) and the demonstration of anti-IgE-induced histamine release from synovial mast cells (6) indicate that these mast cells are immunologically competent. Because serine proteases derived from rat serosal mast cells (SMC) degrade fibronectin (7) and type JV collagen (8) and because tryptase derived from human mast cells activates the metalloproteinase stromelysin (9), the mast cell has been implicated in the catabolism of the extracellular matrix of cartilage in rheumatoid arthritis. However, a precise understanding of the role of mast cells in this disease has been hindered by the presence of other types of inflammatory cells in the rheumatoid joint, the lack of an in vitro model system for studying the participation of mast cells in this disorder, and the uncertainty of the phenotype of the mast cells in the diseased tissue.The discovery that rat SMC can be maintained ex vivo for at least 30 days when cocultured with mouse 3T3 fibroblasts or with rat osteoblast-like cells, but not with mouse keratinocytes, mouse macrophages, or bovine endothelial cells (10,ll) suggests that mesenchymal cells may specifically promote the viability of the SMC-like population of mast cells. A complex reciprocal interaction occurs during coculture of mouse bone marrow-derived mast cells and 3T3 fibroblasts, in which the phenotype of the mast cell is dramatically altered histochemically, morpho-