Pulmonary macrophages

Interest in pulmonary macrophage research has greatly increased as is now possible not only to work with the easily accessible alveolar macrophages but also with macrophages prepared from lung tissue, such as the interstitial macrophages, dendritic cells and intravascular macrophages. A fascinating aspect is that, in one organ, the modulation of macrophage functions according to their anatomical localization can be studied. This article tries to review some of the modern aspects of research on pulmonary macrophages. These include localization and origin of the various subpopulations, membrane receptors and surface markers, arachidonic acid metabolism, antimicrobial activity, cytokine production and some aspects of macrophage involvement in sarcoidosis and idiopathic lung fibrosis.