Macrophage production during murine listeriosis: colony-stimulating factor 1 (CSF-1) and CSF-1-binding cells in genetically resistant and susceptible mice.

The concentration of the macrophage-specific colony-stimulating factor (CSF-1) and the numbers of bone marrow and spleen cells with specific receptors for that factor have been investigated in a number of mouse strains under normal conditions and after infection with the facultative intracellular bacterium Listeria monocytogenes. The CSF-1 concentration in serum and tissue was markedly elevated in infected mice, the degree of stimulation reflecting the dose of L. monocytogenes. The CSF-1 titer did not correlate with genetic resistance or susceptibility of the mice to L. monocytogenes. In contrast to the effect of lipopolysaccharide, Listeria infection was able to increase the level of CSF-1 in the lipopolysaccharide nonresponder strain C3H/HeJ. In line with earlier findings on colony-forming cells, cells bearing receptors for CSF-1 in uninfected susceptible BALB/cJ mice were only half those in resistant C57BL/6J mice. After infection the majority of these cells disappeared from the bone marrow and spleen cells of both resistant and susceptible mice. The number of CSF-1 receptor-bearing cells in the normal bone marrow may determine the degree of resistance to L. monocytogenes.