BACKGROUND Macrophages promote tumor growth by stimulating tumor-associated angiogenesis, cancer-cell invasion, migration, intravasation, and suppression of antitumor immune responses. MATERIALS AND METHODS Ten transgenic nude mice, ubiquitously expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP), were injected subcutaneously with the human pancreatic cancer cell line, BXPC3, stably expressing red flu...

A polysaccharide-rich fraction (ATF) of medicinal mushroom Agaricus brasiliensis was evaluated on the candidacidal activity, H2O2 and nitric oxide (NO) production, and expression of mannose receptors by murine peritoneal macrophages. Mice received three intraperitoneal (i.p.) injections of ATF and after 48 h their peritoneal resident macrophages were assayed against Candida albicans yeast forms...

Ficoll-purified lymphocytes (peritoneal, splenic, or thymic) and macrophages (peritoneal) from Toxoplasma-immune and normal female NMRI mice were used. Suspensions of washed cells were made in medium 199 containing 20% heat-inactivated normal calf serum. Sixty minutes after the adherence of 10(5) macrophages to cover slips in Leighton tubes, lymphocytes were added in various concentrations. The...

The in vitro effect of endotoxin (LPS) on unfractionated mouse peritoneal cells and cells fractionated into glass adherent and nonadherent populations was studied. LPS caused blast transformation and deoxyribonucleic acid synthesis in the nonadherent, nonphagocytic cells. There was no evidence of a mitogenic effect on macrophages. Instead, a cytotoxic effect was noted. When incubated with unfra...

Mycobacterium lepraemurium cells were found to multiply in normal mouse peritoneal-derived and bone marrow-derived macrophages in vitro. Whereas activated peritoneal-derived macrophages demonstrated marked bacteriostasis for M. lepraemurium, significant bactericidal activity was exhibited by activated bone marrow-derived macrophages. However, only a small proportion of the bacteria were killed ...

Objective(s) Using herbal medicines as a complementary treatment method is increasing in wide variety of diseases. MS14-an herbal-marine preparation-is reported to have anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory activities; however, the mechanism underlying its therapeutic effect is not known. Macrophages play an important role in host defense mechanisms and carry out their role by producing vario...

Background & Aims: Verapamil as a calcium channel blocker has been broadly used in the treatment of many cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension and arrhythmia. Furthermore, the anti-tumor/ antiinflammatory effects of verapamil have been shown. In the present study, the cytotoxic effect of verapamil on human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and BALB/c peritoneal macrophges has be...

Macrophages generally constitute a major component of tumor stroma, and possess either tumor growth promoting or inhibiting capabilities. Classically activated macrophages exert cytotoxicity and produce inflammatory cytokines, which limits tumor growth. By contrast, alternatively activated or M2 macrophages induce tumor progression by stimulating angiogenesis and proliferation. Previously we sh...

Alveolar macrophages (AM) are the most abundant antigen-presenting cells in the lungs, and they play a critical role in regulating pulmonary immune responses to inhaled pathogens and to allergens. However, compared with macrophages in other body sites, AM have an unusual phenotype that, in many respects, resembles the phenotype of dendritic cells (DC). Therefore, to more fully define the unique...