Mast cells (MCs) were once considered only as effector cells in pathogenic IgE‑ and IgG‑mediated responses such as allergy. However, developments over the last 15 years have suggested that MCs have evolved in vertebrates as beneficial effector cells that are involved in the very first...

The mRNA‑protein complexes (mRNPs, Messenger ribonucleoprotein particles) are the “couriers” of the modern eukaryotes that process, store and deliver messages (transcripts) from the nucleus to the appropriate subcellular compartments and beyond. Presence of mRNPs arbitrates the...

Manipulations with hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) in the context of bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cell transplantation have become a routine procedure. Preparative quantities of HSC are readily accessibile. Either marrow or peripheral blood can provide greater than 2 million CD34+ HSC...

The extracellular matrix (ECM) is a complex mixture of structural and functional proteins, glycoproteins, and proteoglycans arranged in a unique, tissue specific three-dimensional ultrastructure. The structure and the composition of the ECM are both a product of the cells that populate the...

Stem cells are defined as undifferentiated cells that can proliferate and have the capacity of both self-renewal and differentiation. Most adult tissues have multipotential stem cells that are capable of producing a limited range of differentiated cell lineages appropriate to their location....

Other chapters in this book have outlined the broad and diverse roles that PKC plays in many different cell types as well as the elegant and complex regulatory mechanisms operating to control the activation of PKC. In this chapter, we will discuss the unique role of PKC in the nervous system,...