Mast cells in the dura mater of the rat may play a role in cerebral pathologies including neurogenic inflammation (vasodilation; plasma extravasation) and headache pain . As has been suggested for other tissues, dural mast cells may exhibit a close spatial relationship to nerves. There has been no detailed ultrastructural description of mast cells in this tissue; therefore, the goals of this study were to provide this analysis and to determine the spatial relationship of mast cells to nerves and other components of the dura mater in the rat.Four adult anesthetized male Wistar rats (290-400 g) were fixed by perfusion through the heart with 2% glutaraldehyde and 2.8% paraformaldehyde in a potassium phosphate buffer (pH 7.4) for 30 min. The head of each rat was removed and stored in fixative for a minimum of 24 h at which time the dural coverings were removed and dissected into samples that included the middle meningeal vasculature. Samples were routinely processed and flat embedded in LX 112. Thick (1 um) sections from a minimum of 3 blocks per rat were stained with toluidine blue (0.5% aqueous).
