The objective of this project is to continue studies that will allow the quantitation of stages of macrophage activation in tumors. This objective will be accomplished by pursual of two specific aims. First, to use an antiserum specific for p47b to conduct immunochemical studies of this marker of priming in vitro and in progressing, as well as regressing, mouse tumors. The results of these studies will increase understanding of how macrophages become primed, and will lead to determination of the frequency and distribution of this intermediate stage of activation in tumors. Second, to use nitric acid synthase (mac-NOS) to characterize tumors immunohistochemically with respect to their content of fully activated macrophages. Immunohistochemical studies will utilize semi- thin (1 micron-thick) frozen sections and a two color detection system to demonstrate primed (p47b) and fully activated (mac-NOS) macrophages in the same section of tumor. It is expected that the new knowledge gained from these studies should have broad relevance to the field of macrophage immunobiology, because it will undoubtedly be applicable to the analysis of macrophage activation for functions other than tumor cell killing, such as the killing of microbes.
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