The incidence of mono- and multinuclear cells and their expression of pro- and antifibrotic factors were studied in cultured peritoneal macrophages from intact and BCG-infected mice. Generally, the expression of factors increased with an increase in the number of nuclei per cell. However, the expression was higher in macrophages from BCG infected mice, except the cells with 3 and more nuclei, extremely rarely expressing IL-1α in cultures from intact and BCG-infected animals. The number of macrophages with 3 and more nuclei, expressing CatD, was comparable with the number of mono- and binuclear macrophages. Presumably, this was determined by various mechanisms of formation of multinuclear (3-5 and more nuclei) macrophages, for example, by amitosis.
Peritoneal macrophages were isolated from intact and BCG-infected BALB/c mice and explanted in vitro. Multinuclear macrophages formed in these cultures differed by the number of nuclei, expression of apoptosis inductors and regulators (TNF-α, p53 protein, caspase 3, and Bcl-2 protein), and cytophysiological characteristics (phagocytic activity, ROS generation, and antimycobacterial properties). Our results indicate that the formation of multinuclear macrophages is accompanied by induction of apoptosis (p53 signaling pathway) and appearance of multinuclear macrophage-derived cells characterized by high phagocytic and antimycobacterial activity.
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