mast cell
"A mast cell is like a basketball covered in ping pong balls. And it has all these Y- shaped dandelion heads on it. The foot of the Y is on the basketball, and their arms are reaching out to find invaders. If they find something you have become sensitized to, they latch on and the Mast cell "degranulates"--- goes off like a bomb. It can release some 60 different things, including histamines, and inflammatory elements are called onto the scene. "
"The mast cell is like the gunpowder in a firecracker, the antibody is like the fuse which activates the firecracker & the protein is like the spark which lights the fuse."
"A mast cell is like a mouse trap loaded with two ping pong balls."
"A mast cell is like a pinata that you don't want to open, with histamine being a very itchy type of candy."
METAMIA is a free database of analogy and metaphor. Anyone can contribute or search. The subject matter can be anything. Science is popular, but poetry is encouraged. The goal is to integrate our fluid muses with the stark literalism of a relational database. Metamia is like a girdle for your muses, a cognitive girdle.