Studies on the pathogenesis of fever. XV. The production of endogenous pyrogen by peritoneal macrophages.

Macrophages from oil-induced peritoneal exudates in rabbits produce endogenous pyrogen when first activated by incubation in 4 hr exudate fluid and then stimulated by incubation in potassium-free isotonic sodium chloride solution. The failure of earlier investigators to obtain pyrogen from macrophages is explained, and the relevance of macrophage pyrogen to fevers of agranulocytosis and other diseases, in which mononuclear rather than granulocytic exudates predominate, is discussed.