PULMONARY IMMUNE CELLS - PULMONARY MACROPHAGES

Interest in pulmonary macrophage research has greatly increased as is now possible not only to work with the easily accessible alveolar macr ophages but also with macrophages prepared from lung tissue, such as t he interstitial macrophages, dendritic cells and intravascular macroph ages. A fascinating aspect is that, in one organ, the modulation of ma crophage functions according to their anatomical localization can be s tudied. This article tries to review some of the modern aspects of res earch on pulmonary macrophages. These include localization and origin of the various subpopulations, membrane receptors and surface markers, arachidonic acid metabolism, antimicrobial activity, cytokine product ion and some aspects of macrophage involvement in sarcoidosis and idio pathic lung fibrosis.