Pulmonary clearance of bacteria was studied using histologic, bacteriologic, and radiotracer methods. When mice were exposed to an aerosol of P32-tagged Staphylococcus aureus or Proteus mirabilis, and the rate of disappearance of viable bacteria compared with the rate of their mechanical removal, it was found that bacterial viability declined 80 to 90 per cent in 4 hours, whereas radioactivity declined by only 14 to 20 per cent. The marked disparity in these rates indicated that mechanical removal comprised a relatively small fraction of the total clearing process. The in situ bactericidal action of the lung predominated over the mechanical removal process in achieving clearance of the inhaled bacteria. By immunofluorescent methods, the inhaled bacteria were found to be localized in the alveolar spaces and within alveolar macrophages. These observations suggest that the bactericidal action of the bronchopulmonary tree is due primarily to the phagocytic activity of the alveolar macrophages, and that the action of the mucociliary stream, in relation to bacterial particles, may be largely related to the transport from the lung of phagocytes containing material of bacterial origin.
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January 01 1964
THE ROLE OF THE ALVEOLAR MACROPHAGE IN THE CLEARANCE OF BACTERIA FROM THE LUNG
Gareth M. Green,
Gareth M. Green
From the Channing Laboratory, Mallory Institute of Pathology, Thorndike Memorial Laboratory, and Second and Fourth (Harvard) Medical Services, Boston City Hospital, and the Departments of Medicine and Bacteriology and Immunology, Harvard Medical School, Boston
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Edward H. Kass
Edward H. Kass
From the Channing Laboratory, Mallory Institute of Pathology, Thorndike Memorial Laboratory, and Second and Fourth (Harvard) Medical Services, Boston City Hospital, and the Departments of Medicine and Bacteriology and Immunology, Harvard Medical School, Boston
Search for other works by this author on:
Gareth M. Green
From the Channing Laboratory, Mallory Institute of Pathology, Thorndike Memorial Laboratory, and Second and Fourth (Harvard) Medical Services, Boston City Hospital, and the Departments of Medicine and Bacteriology and Immunology, Harvard Medical School, Boston
Edward H. Kass
From the Channing Laboratory, Mallory Institute of Pathology, Thorndike Memorial Laboratory, and Second and Fourth (Harvard) Medical Services, Boston City Hospital, and the Departments of Medicine and Bacteriology and Immunology, Harvard Medical School, Boston
Received:
July 29 1963
Online ISSN: 1540-9538
Print ISSN: 0022-1007
Copyright © 1964, by The Rockefeller Institute
1964
J Exp Med (1964) 119 (1): 167–176.
Article history
Received:
July 29 1963
Citation
Gareth M. Green, Edward H. Kass; THE ROLE OF THE ALVEOLAR MACROPHAGE IN THE CLEARANCE OF BACTERIA FROM THE LUNG . J Exp Med 1 January 1964; 119 (1): 167–176. doi: https://doi.org/10.1084/jem.119.1.167
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