正常肺および炎症肺における肺胞マクロファージの形態と機能

抄録

The relationship between the morphology and the function of alveolar macrophages (AM) in healthy rabbit lungs and pulmonary macrophages (PM) in rabbit lungs with inflammation was studied. The effects of alveolar lining materials obtained from these lungs on the morphology and the function of these cells were also studied.
The BCG-induced granulomatous rabbit lungs were used as a model of the inflammed lungs. A granulomatous response in the lungs was produced in BCG-vaccinated rabbits by intravenous injection of heat-killed BCG. Five days after a granulomatous response, pulmonary macrophages (PM) and lung lavage fluids (immune PW) were harvested from the lungs by bronchial lavage with sterile physiological saline solution.
The normal alveolar macrophages (AM), lung lavage fluids (normal PW) and homologous serum were harvested from normal rabbits as well as those in which a granulomatous response was obtained.
1) The normal AM exposed to normal PW showed activated surface morphology such as microvilli, filopodia, and lamellipodia and functionally enhanced NBT reduction.
2) The normal AM exposed to immune PW or homologous serum exhibited veil-like membranous folds and wave-like lamellipodia morphologically. These macrophages reduced more NBT than the normal AM exposed to normal PW functionally.
3) The pulmonary macrophages (PM) are not exactly comparable to the AM exposed to immune PW or homologous serum, because these PM from the BCG-induced granulomatous lungs are different from the AM from the normal lungs in cell population and in degree of activation. Nonetheless, such PM exhibited veil-like membranous folds and wave-like lamellipodia similar to those of the AM exposed to homologous serum.
4) The PM exposed to immune PW or homologous serum reduced more NBT than those exposed to saline or normal PW functionally.
From the results presented here, we may conclude that alveolar lining materials and exuded serum play an important role to the activation of the AM in the healthy lungs and the PM in the inflammed lungs, and that there is a strong relationship between the morphology and the function of the AM and the PM.