Robert Whitfield MD explains what mast cells are and where they patrol in your body: skin, gut, airways. They're part of your innate immune system, and their concentration on barrier surfaces may explain why some people with breast implant illness report symptoms across multiple systems.
So let's start actually by taking a step back and talking about the immune system, because I think that gives us a good context of what mast cells are, why they become overactive. So you have two different parts of your immune system. You have your innate immune system and your adaptive immune system. So think of your innate immune system as those first line. They're really looking for any type of threat. Your adaptive immune system is a little more specific. They're going to tag certain things. You know, if you have a specific allergy to, let's say a food like peanuts or something, you're getting a tag there that's saying, okay, this is a problem, but our innate immune system is just looking at, okay, what is the threat and what do we need to do to stop it? And your mast cells are a part of the innate immune system and they're constantly looking for threats and dangers. So they're also concentrated, which will, it will be interesting when we relate this to breast implant illness because they're concentrated on surface area. So they're going to be concentrated on your skin, in your GI tract, in your airways, on places. And that's why we see some of these symptoms come up in multi system symptoms.
