Intestinal mast cell infiltration may participate to abdominal pain in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) patients. However, the underlying mechanisms remain unknown. We assessed the effect of mast cell mediators released from the colonic mucosa of IBS patients on the activation of rat sensory neurons in vitro.
Department of Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology, and CRBA, University of Bologna, St. Orsola Hospital, Via Massarenti 9, I-40138 Bologna, Italy. gbarbara@med.unibo.it