[Limits of the phagocytizing capability of macrophages].

The capacity of macrophage peritoneal cells to ingest both different doses of the antigen (sheep red blood cells--SRBC) and the antigens differing in their physico-chemical properties (SRBC, rat red blood cells, typhoid vaccine) was studied. A manifold increase in the SRBC dose failed to influence the amount of the antigen ingestion in the course of a definite time period. When mice macrophage cells were obtained at short periods after the injection of red blood cells of different animal species, there was a decrease of the capacity of these cells to the red blood cells ingestion in vitro. Preincubation of macrophages in vivo or in vitro with all the antigens tested increased sharply their capacity to phagocytize the typhoid vaccine.