The Pulmonary Macrophage in Acute Leukemia

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Abstract
Because tissue macrophages are generally thought to arise from bone-marrow precursors via the blood monocyte, the question of maintenance of the alveolar macrophage population in bone-marrow failure was examined in three leukemic patients with long sustained monocytopenia. In all three, morphologically and functionally normal alveolar macrophages existed and were capable of producing colony-stimulating activity and of pre-replicative DNA synthesis. These observations indicate that in monocytopenia, the tissue macrophage population persists and may be self-sustaining. (N Engl J Med 290:875–878, 1974)