Modulation of peritoneal re-epithelialization by postsurgical macrophages.

The studies reviewed here show that postsurgical macrophages are capable of modulating the proliferation of TRC. That is, macrophages either suppress or enhance the proliferation of TRC depending on the culture time and the medium used as a comparison, i.e., culture medium with only serum or spent medium from cultures of resident peritoneal macrophages. Postsurgical macrophages also modulate the morphology of (spindly or rounded appearance) and the secretion of extracellular matrices by TRC. The responsivity of TRC to control by postsurgical macrophage-spent media or growth factors changes as a function of postsurgical and/or culture time. In addition, cells harvested from the site of peritoneal trauma (TRC) did not respond to growth factors in a fashion entirely the same as fibroblasts. This indicates that cells harvested from the site of peritoneal injury are unique. Lastly, after removal of a suppressive factor from postsurgical macrophage-spent media by dialysis, the factors secreted by postsurgical macrophages are more potent in enhancing TRC proliferation than growth factors individually.