Cardiac Mast Cells: Underappreciated Immune Cells in Cardiovascular Homeostasis and Disease

Studies with murine mast cells, combining single-cell transcriptomics, imaging, and functional assays, now provide validation of prior observations demonstrating that mast cells form a highly heterogeneous population of immune cells. Mast cells are strategically located in different sections of the human myocardium, coronary arterial wall, and aortic valves. In each location, the mast cells exert organ-specific functions. Recent studies have...