A method for the collection of alveolar macrophages for microscopy

A method is described for the collection and fixation for microscopy of samples of alveolar macrophages harvested by bronchopulmonary lavage. The cell pellicles thus obtained were analyzed by light microscopy by measurement of cell profile diameters. Statistical comparison indicated that no gradient in profile size was present across individual pellicles; they were therefore suitable for random sampling. Mean profile diameters and size distributions were compared for the individual populations of alveolar macrophages.