Plasminogen activator and thromboplastin activity from sheep alveolar macrophages

Alveolar lavage cells from normal sheep were found to be composed of over 95% macrophages. When the cells were cultured, fibrinolytic and thromboplastin-like activities could be detected within 2–4 hours of incubation. As the number of cultured cells was increased the two activities in the conditioned medium increased proportionately. The cells were separated into two distinct subpopulations by means of a sedimentation velocity cell fractionation technique. The macrophage subpopulations were examined for differences in size, morphology, esterase staining and ability to release plasminogen activator and procoagulant activity respectively. These activities were confined to the large cell subpopulation. The fibrinolytic activity was shown to be plasminogen-dependent and could be inhibited by DFP. On the basis of this the fibrinolytic activity has been designated as plasminogen activator. The procoagulant activity was shown to be thromboplastin in nature because it was Factor VII dependent, inactivated by phospholipase C and not inhibited by DFP. The procoagulant activity has been designated as macrophage thromboplastin. The two activities could be distinguished on the basis of DFP inhibition.