Coculture of mast cells with psoriatic fibroblasts: an experimental system for studying the two cell interactions

In this study we established a coculture system for rat peritoneal mast cells (MC) with psoriatic (PSO) dermal fibroblasts. Rat MC adhered within five minutes to the fibroblasts monolayer and their attachment and viability was maintained for at least 2-3 days. Cocultured MC could be activated to release high percentages of histamine with compound 48/80 indicating that they retained their full functional activity. Attachment, viability and functional activity were similar for MC seeded on PSO fibroblasts or on normal human fibroblasts (NOR) used as a control. This would indicate that PSO fibroblasts altered biochemical characteristics do not interfere with these MC properties. We suggest that this coculture system is a suitable in vitro defined model to study mutual effects of MC and fibroblasts in psoriasis.