The Generation of ‘Cytotoxic’ Macrophages in Mice during Infection with Influenza A or Sendai Virus

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Abstract
Injection of infectious but not of non-infectious influenza A virus or of infectious or noninfectious Sendai virus i.p. into mice induces the generation of plastic-adherent cells that are able to effect release of 51Cr from labeled virus-infected target cells but not from labeled, uninfected cells. Their activity is greatly diminished by exposure to silica or carrageenan but not by anti-Thy 1 antibody and complement treatment. The activity of the cell preparation cannot be explained by contamination with natural killer or K cells. Thus, the effector cells were identified as macrophages and for convenience are called cytotoxic macrophages. The maximum cytotoxic activity was recovered from the peritoneal cavity 5 days after virus injection and declined thereafter. Although the effector cells are cross-reactive in that cells activated by an influenza A strain virus lyse target cells infected with the same or other A strain viruses or with Sendai virus, there is preferential lysis of cells infected with the homologous virus. The action of the effector cells is not H-2-restricted. Preliminary experiments showed that similar effector cells can be recovered from the lungs of mice 5 days after intranasal inoculation of infectious influenza virus, so they may contribute to the host control of the disease.