Functional characteristics of murine macrophages responding to migration inhibitory factors

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Abstract
Mouse bone marrow cells differentiate in culture in the presence of L cell-conditioned medium to macrophages (MΦ). Proliferation, release of plasminogen activator, expression of transglutaminase, random motility and response to a standard preparation of purified MΦ migration inhibitory factor (MIF) was recorded daily up to 14 days. After an initial phase of proliferation, precursor cells differentiated into MΦ. In the course of maturation, plasminogen activator production was transiently expressed between day 4 and 12; beginning on day 5 the cells expressed intracellular transglutaminase. Random motility of cells was high at the beginning of culture but steadily declined thereafter. The response to MIF was only expressed between day 5 and 8. However, it was possible to induce MIF responsiveness in mature, unresponsive MΦ by the addition of L cell-conditioned medium. To characterize the MIF-responsive MΦ type further, bone marrow-derived MΦ at day 6 of culture were separated on a hypotonic Percoll gradient into three distinct cell bands. While all densities of MΦ displayed random migration, only cells with a density between 1.060 and 1.065 were responsive to MIF. We conclude that the response of MΦ to MIF is a phenotypic trait transiently expressed in the course of maturation.

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