Box 2 Future research perspectives
• To determine if MCs from different hematopoietic waves exhibit distinct functions.
• To determine the developmental relationship between the MC trajectory and other myeloerythroid lineages. Is it consistent in health and disease?
• To identify mechanisms behind an increase in MCs at a site of inflammation: local proliferation, survival and/or progenitor recruitment to the site of inflammation? What chemotactic factors drive MC progenitor recruitment in vivo?
• To get a better understanding of MC heterogeneity in different tissues and to define the mechanisms that regulate MC plasticity.
• To understand the mechanisms for differential release of MC mediators.
• To decipher the contribution of MCs and their mediators in diseases beyond primary MC diseases and allergy.
• To understand mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS). What are the mechanisms? How can it be diagnosed and treated?
• Development of drugs that selectively target MCs.
• Development of new KIT-independent MC deficient models (mouse, but also other species such as rat, ferret and guinea pig that might be better for specific diseases), in which MC functions and contributions to health and disease can be specifically investigated.