Monocyte kinetics in rabbits

Abstract

Previous studies of monocytes isolated from peripheral blood have suggested that the lung sequesters these cells and has an important role in monocyte kinetics. However, the lung also provides the first capillary bed encountered by these cells after intravenous injection. A major criticism of the previous reports is that the behavior of monocytes in the lung may be altered as a result of the isolation procedure. The present study addresses this question by comparing the distribution of isolated monocytes (87% pure) in various organs 10 min after they were injected into either the central venous or the arterial circulation. The data show that the extraction of monocytes on the first passage through the lung after intravenous injection was 86.5 +/- 1.5%. After the monocytes had circulated for 10 min, the lungs contained 35.5 +/- 2.5% of the cells after intravenous injection and 29.7 +/- 2.2% after intra-arterial injection (P greater than 0.05). The lung-to-blood recovery ratio after either intravenous or intra-arterial injection showed that the lung contained a marginating pool of monocytes that was five to seven times the size of the circulating pool. The retention of monocytes in a region of the lung was proportional to the regional erythrocyte transit time. The half-life of the radiolabeled monocytes in the circulation was approximately 25 h. We conclude that the lung contains a marginating pool of monocytes and speculate that they concentrate there in preparation for migration into the interstitium and air space of the lung.