A quantitative cytochemical analysis of resident and exudate macrophages.

Quantitative cytochemical investigations have detected individual variations between murine peritoneal macrophages and have shown distinct difference between resident and exudate populations. The latter generally contain greater amounts of protein, RNA, acid phosphatase, succinate dehydrogenase, lactate dehydrogenase, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, and NADH dehydrogenase. On te other hand, no differences were detected in the cellular content of DNA, not-specific esterase, and NADPH dehydrogenase. In many instances they reflect the biochemical findings of other investigators including the stimulation of glycolysis, tricarboxylic acid cycle and hexose monophosphate shunt pathways, which can occur in elicited or activated macrophages. Although cytochemical differences between the two populations exist, it cannot be stated whether they represent distinct cell lines or different functional states of the same cell population.