Different patterns of macrophage infiltration into allogeneic-murine and xenogeneic-human neoplasms growing in nude mice

This study determined the distribution pattern of tumor-associated macrophages (TAM) in murine and human neoplasms growing subcutaneously in nude mice. Seven different human neoplasms (cancers of the breast, kidney, colon, prostate, lung, and skin, and a melanoma) and five different murine neoplasms (carcinomas of the lung, colon, and kidney, melanoma, and fibrosarcoma) were injected into nude mice. The murine tumors also were injected into syngeneic mice. Tumor-associated macrophages in small and large tumors were studied immunohistochemically by the use of several antibodies, including the macrophage-specific F4/80. The pattern of TAM distribution differed between mouse and human tumors. Regardless of histologic classification, TAM were uniformly distributed throughout all the murine neoplasms growing in syngeneic or nude mice. In the human neoplasms, TAM were found on the periphery of the lesions and in association with fibrous septae. The distribution of TAM in murine and human tumors was associated with a pattern of vascularization as determined by antibodies to basement membrane collagen type IV. Because the pattern of TAM distribution in neoplasms influences their antitumor activity, the data question the validity of the nude mouse model for the study of macrophage infiltration into human neoplasms.