Paul Ehrlichs ;Mastzellen From Aniline Dyes to DNA Chip Arrays: A Historical Review of Developments

It has been more than a century since the discovery of the mast cell by the genius and tenacity of Paul Ehrlich, who described this cell when he was a medical student. One cannot deny that this discovery also coincides with the golden age of immunology. The discovery of this important cell type in immunological history was no serendipity: it was a result of Ehrlich’s prodigious laboratory talent and his ability to combine intuition and deduction despite the limited resources of his times. Since then, we have learned much more about the immune response, immunoglobulin E, and the development and function of mast cells in various pathological states. What follows is a review of Paul Ehrlich’s discovery of the mast cell (m�stzellen) and a chronological review of subsequent developments in mast cell research, including the recent use of proteomics and genomics to understand mast cell biology.