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Newly discovered roles for basophils: a neglected minority gains new respect

Abstract

Basophils are the least common type of granulocyte and they account for less than 1% of peripheral blood leukocytes. Because of this minority status and a phenotype that is similar to mast cells, basophils have often been neglected in immunological studies or considered to have minor, redundant roles in immune responses in vivo. However, recent studies have now defined previously unrecognized roles for basophils in both immune regulation and allergic responses, and have shown that basophils and mast cells have distinct roles in immune responses.

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Figure 1: Roles for basophils in allergy.
Figure 2: Roles for basophils in immune regulation.

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Acknowledgements

We thank members of the Department of Immune Regulation, Tokyo Medical and Dental University Graduate School for helpful discussion and critical comments on the manuscript. Our work is supported by Grants-in-aid from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

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Correspondence to Hajime Karasuyama.

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Karasuyama, H., Mukai, K., Tsujimura, Y. et al. Newly discovered roles for basophils: a neglected minority gains new respect. Nat Rev Immunol 9, 9–13 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nri2458

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