Uptake of inert particles by dog alveolar macrophages in vitro — a comparison of monolayer and suspension techniques

✍ Scribed by Heinz-Leonhard Mueller; Raymond A. Guilmette; Bruce A. Muggenburg

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1989
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 800 KB
• Volume: 9
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0260-437X
• DOI: 10.1002/jat.2550090302

✦ Synopsis

This study was conducted to determine if significant differences in phagocytosis occurred in pulmonary alveolar macrophages in suspension or monolayer cultures. Dog alveolar macrophages were incubated with different numbers of fluorescent polystyrene latex microspheres, both in suspension and in monolayer cultures. The particle uptake by cells was linear for 10-100 min and the fraction of cells that contained particles was similar for both incubation techniques. Differences between carboxylated and non-carboxylated microspheres were statistically not significant. The overall particle numbers associated with cells were 2-5 times higher for cells incubated in suspension compared to adherent cells. Many more cells were found with low particle numbers at all incubation times using the monolayer technique compared to the suspension technique. When cells were treated with xylene for 1 h after different times of incubation in vifro, a higher decrease in particle numbers in cells was found in suspension cultures than in monolayer cultures. This finding suggests higher particle binding when cells were incubated in suspension, but particle numbers after xylene treatment were still higher in cells incubated in suspension than in monolayers. A comparison with the uptake of similar particles by dog alveolar macrophages in vivo suggests that the suspension cultures were more similar to the events in the dog lung, but uptake rates were about a factor of two lower with suspended cells than those seen in vivo.