Antifungal activity of splenic, liver and pulmonary macrophages against Candida albicans and effects of macrophage colony-stimulating factor.

Disseminated infections due to Candida albicans are frequently encountered in immunocompromised patients. We compared the antifungal activities of macrophages residing in spleen, liver and lungs of rabbits against blastoconidia and pseudohyphae of C. albicans. Splenic adherent cells (SAC), Kupffer cells (KC) and pulmonary alveolar macrophages (PAM) all ingested blastoconidia efficiently. SAC caused significantly more damage to unopsonized pseudohyphae compared with KC (P < 0.01) or PAM (P < 0.001). Incubation of SAC with 15 ng ml(-1) of recombinant human macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF) at 37 degrees C for 2 days significantly enhanced phagocytosis (P = 0.02) and killing (P = 0.05) of blastoconidia. In contrast, M-CSF had no effect on phagocytic activities of KC or PAM against blastoconidia or on damage caused by any of the macrophages to pseudohyphae of C. albicans. Thus, although all three resident macrophage types ingest blastoconidia efficiently, they differ in their capacity to cause damage to pseudohyphae and in their responsiveness to M-CSF for antifungal activation. M-CSF augments the capacity of SAC to ingest and kill blastoconidia and may therefore have a role in the treatment and prevention of hematogenously disseminated candidiasis.