ABILITY OF BOVINE MAMMARY MACROPHAGES TO ENHANCE PROLIFERATION OF AUTOLOGOUS BLOOD AND MAMMARY SECRETION LYMPHOCYTES

Cells were obtained by centrifuging the mammary secretion of healthy udders of 19 cows during the dry-period and during mid-lactation. The suspended cells were incubated in plastic wells. Those adhered cells classified as mammary macrophages were incubated with pokeweed mitogen (PWM). Autologous peripheral blood lymphocytes were added to wells containing untreated macrophage cultures or cultures pretreated with PWM. In seven cows autologous dry-period mammary lymphocytes were added instead of blood lymphocytes. The macrophages + lymphocyte cultures were subjected to the lymphocyte stimulation test (LST). For comparison, peripheral blood lymphocytes and dry-period secretion lymphocytes were also subjected to the LST in the presence of PWM. In all cases, mitogenic responses were higher in pretreated macrophage cultures than in background control cultures. The stimulation indices (SI) showed that PWM-pretreated dry-period mammary macrophages enhanced the proliferation of autologous peripheral blood lymphocytes to a greater extent than did blood lymphocytes plus PWM (49±10 v. 30 + 6; P ≤ 0.05). Mammary macrophages taken from the same cows but during mid-lactation also clearly induced proliferation of autologous peripheral blood lymphocytes but to a lesser extent than dry-period macrophages (16 + 2 v. 49±10; 16 ±2 v. 30 ±6; P ≤0.01 and P ≤ 0.05). The PVM pretreatment of mammary macrophages increased the proliferation of autologous dry-period mammary lymphocytes by at least a factor of three (28 ±8 v. 8±2 005). The present results indicate that bovine mammary macrophages pretreated with PWM enhance proliferation as well as modulation of mammary and peripheral blood lymphocytes. The modulation of lymphocyte stimulation as demonstrated here in vitro, has great significance regarding aspects of local immunostimulation related to modern treatment of mastitis. © 1990, Proprietors of Journal of Dairy Research. All rights reserved.