Improvement and Application of Assay for Quantitating Phagocytosis of Mice Peritoneal Macrophages

The traditional in vivo assay for quantitating phagocytosis of murine peritoneal macrophages was improved. The macrophages were collected from the peritoneal cavity of BALB/C mice. The macrophages treated with glycyrrhiza polysaccharide at different concentrations were incubated with chicken red blood cells(CRBC) at 37 ℃ with 5% CO2in the air. After 1 h, the phagocytic percentages and index were calculated under inverted microscope. Meanwhile, the improved method was utilized to evaluate the effects of zy-mosan on the phagocytosis and morphology of macrophages. The results indicated that the phagocytic per-centages and index by the improved assay were significantly correlated with that of in vivo assay(n=6, P0.01).After 1 h of zymosan treatment, the phagocytosis was significantly enhanced by zymosan compared with con-trol; obvious morphological changes of macrophages were observed, those typical morphological features sug-gested that macrophages might have been activated. The new improved in vitro assay for quantitating phagocytosis without staining was performed under the simulated physiological conditions, which has been keeping the cell activities. It is an easy, fast, cost efficient and reliable method suitable for scientific research and teaching application in a routine laboratory.