Characterization of Bronchoalveolar Lavage Cells and Macrophage-Derived Chemoattractant Activity in Pancreatic Elastase-Induced Emphysema in Hamsters

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-1988

Description

Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) was performed 30 days after endotracheal saline (C) or pancreatic elastase (E) administration to hamsters. E animals had twice as many cells as C animals (7.04 ± 0.07 vs. 6.69 ± 0.05 logw cells, p < 0.0001, paired t-testjand greater numbers of polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) (6.61 ± 0.05 vs. 5.27 ± 0.04 log10 cells/animal, p < 0.0001, t-test). On flow cytometric analysis and cell sorting, BAL cells from C animals showed a homogeneous population of cells with high light scatter and laser-excited intrinsic autofluorescence that were predominantly (> 99%) pulmonary alveolar macrophages (PAM). BAL cells from E animals had 80% PAM with characteristics similar to those of C animals; the remaining 20% of cells were smaller with lower forward and 90o light scatter and four- to fivefold lower autofluorescence. These were found to be predominantly PMN on cytological examination of a sorted fraction. Fc receptors were expressed by >95% of BAL cells from both C and E animals. To explain the altered cell population in E animals, PAM from both E and C animals were cultured in vitro, and the supernatants were assayed for neutrophil cheomattrac-tant activity (NCA). In vitro PAM from E animals produced greater NCA than control PAM after 48 h in culture when stimulated with aggregated immunoglobulin or serum activates zymosan (p ≤ 0.003, ANOVA). Analyses of BAL supernatants 24 h after elastase administration indicated the presence of a heat-stable chemoattractant for PMN; such chemotactic activity, however, was not detectable 1 week or 4 weeks after the administration of elastase.

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