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Antigen-presenting ability of monocytes/macrophages (Mc/Mph) was studied in 26 patients with pulmonary tuberculosis and in 21 healthy donors. The above investigation has demonstrated that the ability of the Mc/Mph patients to present mycobacterial antigens was not only intact, but also appeared to be even higher than the reference values of Mc/Mph antigen presentation in healthy donors (0.7 and 0.28, respectively). The ability of Mc/Mph to secrete interleukin-1 (IL-1) both spontaneously and as a response to muramil dipeptide, a synthetic macrophage activator, was studied in 24 tuberculosis patients and 15 healthy donors. During the experiment it was revealed that the affected and healthy cells binding to a plastic surface do not differ in their spontaneous production of IL-1 (0.8 and 0.79, respectively). At the same time in response to muramil dipeptide stimulation, the Mc/Mph patients produced lesser IL-1 than those of the healthy donors stimulated under the similar conditions (3.2 +/- 1.1 and 10.6 +/- 3.6, respectively).

A technique of macrophage-activating factors (MAF) detection by the in vitro determination of macrophage (Mph) antitumour cytolytic activity by 3H-thymidine residue in the pre-labelled neoplastic target cells (TC) is suggested. Peptone-induced Mph were cultivated for 20-22 hours in the presence of crude supernatants from concanavalin-A-stimulated spleen cells or from the secondary mixed lymphocyte culture. 3H-thymidine-labelled cells of mastocytoma P815 were then added to the washed Mph. The lysis was measured in 48 hours according to the isotope remainder in the non-acid-soluble fraction. The optimal conditions for MAF detection have been selected. Parallel MAF testing with this particular method and with a standard technique using labelled 51Cr TC made it possible to conclude that the method suggested is more sensitive because it permits a combined cultivation of Mph and TC for a relatively long time period.