Fig. 1
From: Critical care management of systemic mastocytosis: when every wasp is a killer bee
Simplified pathophysiology of mastocytosis. The vast majority of patients with mastocytosis have a gain-of-function mutation in the KIT-receptor gene. KIT encodes for a tyrosine kinase which functions as a receptor (CD117) for the stem cell factor (formally known as mast cell growth factor). The mutation results in continuous activation and stimulation even without binding with the mast cell growth factor