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Macrophages are not only efficient phagocytic cells, but are also active secretory cells which synthesize and release a wide variety of products that play a role in host defense. It has been shown that human and animal peritoneal macrophages, stimulated either in vutro or in vivo, released certain soluble products in their environment, such as bacteriolytic enzymes, complement components and many pharmacological mediators including interferon. Recently, we demonstrated that mouse peritoneal macrophages stimulated in vivo with bacterial adjuvants of BCG, propionibacterium acnes and /or Candida albicans inhibited strongly the extracellular growth of C.albicans, whereas unstimulated normal ones did not. The data indicated that macrophages stimulated with bacterial adjuvants rekeased certain "fungiostatic sudstances." It was also suggested that the presence of such fungiostatic sudstances released by " activated" macrophages in the circulatory system may play a role in host defense against systemic infections with C.albicans. However, neither the levels of macrophage products in the serum nor their origins have been clarified. In this study, acorrekation between the levels of macrophage products in the serum and peritoneal fluids of mice immunized with a bacterial adjuvant was investigated. Experimentally, it is imoractical to measure at once all products released by activated macrophages. Therefore, an attemp was made, in this study, to measure the macrephage cytoplasmic antigens of activated macrophage both in peritoneal fluid and in serum by means of single radial immunodiffusion and Ouchterlony double-diffusion test using rabbit antisera aganist the whole cytoplasmic antigens of mouse peritoneal macrophage. The results are summerized as follows: The levels of macrophage cytoplasmic antigen in the peritoneal fluids were higher than those in the sera of normal mice. In the mice immunized with a bacterial adjvant, the level of macrophage cytoplasmic antigen in the peritoneal fluids and the sera increased 5 times in 3 hours post-immunization over the levels of normal mice. Although there were no significant differences between the total volumes of macrophages cytoplasmic antigen in peritoneal fluids and in the sera during the period from 6 to 24 hours post-immunization, an increment of macrophage cytoplasmic antigens in the serum in 3 days postimmunization was twice that of peritoneal fluids. Thereafter, the quantity of macrophage antigen in the serum gradually increased, whereas that in the peritoneal fluids inversely decreased up to the level of normal mice. Peak levels of macrophage antigens in peritoneal fluids and the serum were attained 6 hours and 3 to 5 days post-immunization, respectively. The measurements of soluble precipitating antigen titers of macrophage fraction by means of Ouchterlony double-diffusion showed that no apparent difference in the titers between the peritoneal fluids and the sera obtained during the period from 3 to 48 hours post-immunization, but the titers in the serum up to 5 days post-immunization was significantly high. The fungiostatic activities of the peritoneal fluids and the sera obtained from mnice immunized with a bacterial adjuvant were markediy enhanced compared with those of normal mice. However, the fungiostatic activities of sera obtained from mice which exhibited the highest macrophage products in the peritoneal fluids and the sera was revealed by Ouchterlony test. This study indicates that the appearance of fungiostatic substances in the serum is highly associated with activation of macrophages in the peritoneal cavity, bur the macrophage antigens in the sera and peritoneal fluids are not identical in their antigenicity or in fungiostatic activity.
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