Monocytic origin and postnatal mitosis of intravascular macrophages in the porcine lung.

Ultrastructural studies of near-term to 2-month-old pigs were done to document characteristics and developmental changes of intravascular macrophages in pulmonary capillaries. Evidence is presented that blood monocytes colonize the porcine lung perinatally, replicate within capillaries postnatally, and attach to endothelium by intercellular junctions during differentiation. Major ultrastructural features of differentiated intravascular macrophages are adhesion to capillary endothelium, pseudopods, phagosomes, and tubular structures of micropinocytosis vermiformis. Ultrastructure indicates that intravascular macrophages are cells of the mononuclear phagocyte system involved in several functions (eg, blood cell sequestration) that are usually attributed to hepatolineal macrophages. In newborn and 3-day-old pigs, the majority of cells closely apposed to endothelium consisted of few differentiated monocytes, but in 7-day-old and older animals, most cells that were joined to endothelium had characteristics of differentiated intravascular macrophages.