The progeny of a single progenitor cell can develop characteristics of either a tissue or an alveolar macrophage

Alveolar and peritoneal macrophages differ in their energy metabolism. Alveolar macrophages are mainly aerobic whereas peritoneal macrophages are mainly anaerobic in their energy generation. We investigated the question of whether these differences in metabolism are preprogrammed in subsets of macrophage precursors in the bone marrow, or develop in proliferating cells as a consequence of exposure to different tissue environments. The progeny of single mouse macrophage progenitor cells were grown in vitro for 4 days; the resultant colonies were divided into two roughly equal populations, which were cultured in either a high or low oxygen environment corresponding to that of the alveoli or tissues. Following 4 days incubation at 5% or 20% O2, the activities of the two glycolytic enzymes lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and pyruvate kinase (PK) were two- to threefold higher in the half of the colonies grown in the low O2 environment, whereas the activity of the oxidative phosphorylative enzyme glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) was two- to threefold higher in the half colony grown in the aerobic environment. Re-exposure of the cells from the low O2 environment to high O2 conditions for an additional 4 days caused a rise in the GDH activity and a decrease in the LDH and PK. The recovery of the GDH activity after the re-exposure was time dependent. Our results support the theory that macrophages arising from a single progenitor cell can develop different metabolic features depending on the O2 environment in which they mature. A single precursor cell can give rise to mature cells with metabolic characteristic of either alveolar or tissue macrophages.