Heterogeneous activity of immature and mature cells of the murine monocyte-macrophage lineage derived from different anatomical districts against yeast-phase Candida albicans.

Mature mononuclear phagocytes have been receiving much attention as effectors of spontaneous candidacidal activity, although with controversial results due to differences in the effector populations and the methods used in different laboratories. We here systematically compare the fungistatic activity of immature and mature cells of the murine macrophage series. The results show that nonadherent, nonphagocytic precursor cells (isolated either [90% purity] from bone marrow liquid cultures or from the organs of mice in which inflammatory conditions had been elicited in vivo) exerted a strong extracellular candidastatic activity. In contrast, mature macrophages, either obtained from different anatomical areas (spleen, liver, lung, peritoneal cavity) or matured in vitro from the precursor populations, displayed striking heterogeneity in their ability to inhibit the growth of Candida albicans, depending on the anatomical site they were derived from. Lymphokine activation did not alter the fungistatic pattern of the untreated cells. The different macrophage populations behaved very differently also in the production of reactive oxygen intermediates (ROI) in response to phagocytosis of C. albicans. The amounts of ROI generated, however, showed no correlation with candidastatic ability. Low levels of candidastatic activity exerted by resident peritoneal macrophages (good ROI producers) were inhibited by catalase, whereas high levels of growth inhibition by Kupffer cells (poor ROI producers) after 8 h of assay were hardly influenced by the enzyme. Our data suggest the existence of two different effector mechanisms in macrophage-mediated C. albicans growth inhibition, a rather inefficient ROI-dependent one, and a second, very efficient oxygen-independent mechanism. The implications of these findings are discussed.