Phagocytic and Metabolic Activities of Isolated Rat Kupffer Cells

Abstract

RAT KUPFFER CELL ACTIVITY 917 irradiation for maximum protection indicates that it does not act in the circulating blood.As in animals in shock ( 10) , increased plasma acid phosphatase was consistently associated with early radiation death in the young chick. While a 2-fold or greater increase in PAPase activity was demonstrated in 1eth.ally irradiated chicks ( 1 2~1 5 0 0 R Y o gamma rays) only small increases were demonstrated in groups that received nearlethal exposures (700 R) or that were protected by SBTI administered before a lethal exposure. The increase in PAPase after a lethal irradiation is probably a secondary effect, reflecting release of excess hydrolases from damaged cells. An increase in plasma enzyme before 2 hours would be expected if such a change were a significant factor in initiating the vascular degeneration observed within a few hours after irradiation. Although contributions from circulating substances to this effect cannot be discounted entirely, available evidence supports the involvement of a direct effect. Observations on the circulation in small blood vessels in irradiated chick embryos indicate that degenerative changes occur in localized areas of the vascular wall ( 3 ) .Summary. Soybean trypsin inhibitor (SBTI) can act to reduce early radiation lethality (<24 hours) in the 3-day chick as well as in the 14-day chick embryo. Plasma acid phosphatase activity was increased more than 2-fold in lethally irradiated chicks, but only small increases were demonstrated in groups that received near-lethal exposures or that were protected by SBTI before a lethal exposure. ~~ 1. Christian, E.

The origin, kinetics, and characteristics of the kupffer cells in the normal steady state

“…Our total yield of 2.3 x 107 nonparenchymal cells per g liver compares very favorably with those of other workers using similar methods who obtained in mice, rats, etc., yields varying from 0.58 to 2.2 x 107 nonparenchymal cells per g liver (18,20,23,28,31,41). The percentage of Kupffer cells in the cell suspension of our mice averaged 26.9%, giving a total of 0.91 x 107 Kupffer cells per liver, which is similar or a little lower than that obtained by others in normal rats by using the same method (18,20) or other methods (23).…”

“…Only recently have satisfactory methods of isolating Kupffer cells in suspension become available. Early attempts relied on magnetic and mechanical methods (26) which have now been superseded by enzymatic ones (23,(27)(28)(29)(30). A combination of pronase and DNAase, first used by Bissell et al (20) has been shown to give the best yield and to cause little damage to the Kupffer cells (18,30,31).…”

Chemotaxis of Kupffer Cells Isolated from Rodent Liver

“…It is common knowledge that KC have phagocytic activity on latex particles, iron particles, and colloidal carbon particles (6). As shown in Table 2, 8S.2±2.3, 8S.S±3.0, and 84.4±2.0% of KC ingested latex particles in guinea pigs, rats, and mice, respectively.…”

“…Concerning the function of KC, it is well known that KC have phagocytic activity (6) and the potential to interact functionally with T-lymphocytes for the induction of an immunological reaction similar to that of inflammatory macrophages (7,8). Cytochemically, KC can be stained specifically with peroxidase (1).…”

Preparation of Lysosomes from HeLa Cells and Mouse Liver Kupffer Cells

“…Their nuclei remained intact but the hepatocytes were not disrupted. To ascertain this point, Kupffer cells were isolated by the method of Pisano et al [3], almost completely free from hepatocytes. Kupffer cells collected from 2 g liver were washed with 0.5 M sucrose by centrifuging at 500 x g for 10 min, suspended in 3 ml of 0.5 M sucrose and homogenized by gentle pumping within a 5 ml syringe without a needle as described above.…”