Alveolar macrophage phenotype expression in airway-instilled bone marrow cells in mice

No uniform consensus has been established regarding post-pneumonectomy lung regeneration. This study was undertaken to determine whether airway-instilled lung- or bone marrow-derived cells are able to differentiate and reconstitute as lung component cells in the course of post-pneumonectomy lung growth. Bone marrow cells or lung cells obtained from C57 black (BL)/6-GFP mice were intratracheally instilled into C57BL/6 mice treated with left pneumonectomy and cell differentiation was examined. It is unclear whether intratracheally instilled lung or bone marrow cells differentiate into non-hematopoietic cells after pneumonectomy. However, regardless of whether pneumonectomy is performed, intratracheally instilled bone marrow cells display a surface antigen profile that is similar to alveolar macrophages. Furthermore, these newly differentiated macrophages function similarly to resident macrophages in terms of TNF-α production, suggesting that bone marrow stem cells acquire the same macrophage phenotype. In conclusion, intratracheally instilled bone marrow cells adapt to the surrounding microenvironment, directly differentiating into alveolar macrophages, and remain in the alveolar space for at least 3 months.