Abstract
The alveolar macrophage is an important effector cell in the host response to Pneumocystis. The alveolar macrophage rapidly phagocytoses the organism under normal conditions, but is defective in animals infected with Pneumocystis carinii. Rats with Pneumocystis pneumonia (PcP) phagocytose 90% fewer radiolabeled P. carinii organisms and latex beads in vitro [4] and produce less nitric oxide [2]. As with humans [5], the number of alveolar macrophages decreases during Pneumocystis infection in hosts with defective immune systems, whereas normal animals respond to the organism by increasing their alveolar macrophage numbers [3]. Numbers of alveolar macrophages can decrease for several reasons, including increased cell death, increased cell migration out of the lung, decreased monocyte recruitment, or decreased differentiation of monocytes to macrophages. This study investigated the nature of the decrease in alveolar macrophage number in rats during PcP in the rat.
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