Mastocytosis is a disease process that I occasionally encounter in both my The Woodlands dermatology and Conroe dermatology clinics that involves mast cells behaving in an abnormal fashion. Mastocytosis can be localized to the skin or systemically involved. Mast cells originate from the bone marrow and possess chemicals such as histamine, heparin and other cytokines that regulate specific physiologic processes. Mastocytosis can be categorized as either childhood or adult type onset. In terms of pathogenesis for adults, Mastocytosis is due to genetic mutations in the c-KIT protooncogene that ultimately regulates mast cell growth factors which can lead to an over abundance of mast cells. In childhood Mastocytosis cases, the c-KIT mutation is absent.
