Chemotaxis of purified human monocytes in vitro: lack of accessory cell requirement

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Abstract
An attempt was made to determine whether cell cooperation, either among monocytes or between monocytes and lymphocytes, is a prerequisite for monocyte chemotactic responsiveness. Comparisons were made of Ficoll-Hypaque-separated mononuclear cells and a preparation of 99% pure monocytes obtained by chemotaxis in a newly designed separation chamber. Monocytes of both preparations migrated to chemoattractants without a lag phase, and no further increase in migrated cells was observed after 70 min. The cell dose-response was linear for both preparations over a wide range of cell concentrations in the cell input well of the chemotaxis chamber, suggesting that no monocyte-monocyte interaction was required. Since only 20-60% of the monocytes purified by chemotaxis migrated a 2nd time, the possibility of a requirement for an accessory cell was tested. The addition to purified monocytes of several different mononuclear cell preparations comprising lymphocytes or nonmigrating monocytes had no effect on monocyte migration. Normal human blood monocytes in vitro apparently do not require stimuli from other cells to respond to chemoattractants. Their behavior is profoundly different from that of mouse peritoneal macrophages, which exhibit a time lag in vitro before migration toward an attractant and become more responsive with either increasing cell concentration or addition of purified lymphocytes.