Alveolar macrophages from patients with bronchogenic carcinoma and sarcoidosis similarly express monocyte antigens

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Abstract
SUMMARY: It has been shown that bronchoalveolar lavages (BALs) from patients with sarcoidosis and otlher interstitial lung diseases contain abnormally increased numbers of alveolar macrophages (AM) expressing antigens found on monocytes. The aim of this study was to compare the phenotype of AM from patients wilh sarcoidosis with those from patients with non-interstitial lung disease, namely carcinoma. Using a panel of monoclonal antibodies against cells of the mononuclcar phagocytic series and immunohistochemieal staining, we have compared the expression of antigens on AM recovered at BAI, and peripheral blood monocytes from patients wilh sarcoidosis. with similar cell preparations from bronchogenic carcinoma patients and normal volunteers. We have shown that CD14, CR1 (CD35) and CR3 (CD11b, CD18) are expressed on the majority of monocytes from all subjects, but on only a minority of normal AM. In both patients with sarcoidosis and patients with bronchogenic carcinoma increased proportions of AM expressed these monocyte-associated antigcns. Since BALs from the carcinoma patients were derived from lung lobes which were radiologically free of tumour, the accumulation of AM expressing monocytic antigens is not a local response to the tumour. We conclude that infiltration of the lung wilh monocytes is a more general response to lung disease than has hitherto been reported.