Heterogeneity of rat peritoneal and alveolar macrophage populations: characterization of their surface antigens by antisera.

Antisera were raised in rabbits against rat peritoneal and alveolar macrophages and against rat thymocytes. In vitro investigations of these antisera using dye-exclusion tests and cytotoxicity and immunofluorescence methods indicated that the immunizing cell types exhibited shared and specific antigens. Extensive absorption studies confirmed these findings, and showed some specificity of the anti-peritoneal serum for peritoneal macrophages and of the anti-alveolar serum for alveolar cells.