FIG. 1.

Characteristics of 4-week-old cultured hPrMC before (a and b) and after (c and d) CD14 depletion. (a) Toluidine blue staining reveals both fully granulated hMC and nongranulated cells. (b) FACS analysis revealing low-SSC (left) and high-SSC (right) populations in the scatter plot, indicative of differences in granularity, both with c-kit expression. Only the high-SSC group is CD14⁺. FSC, forward scatter. (c) Following column purification, only the low-SSC population remains on the scatter plot. Cytofluorographic tracings reveal lack of CD14 and expression of c-kit, CD13, CD4, CCR3, CXCR4, and CCR5. (d) Purified hPrMC stained with toluidine blue for metachromasia (left), for CAE activity (center), and for Astra blue-positive granules (right). The results are representative of three experiments each.