The kinetics of mononuclear phagocytes in man

This paper summarizes the essential steps of a systematic cell kinetic analysis of monocytopoiesis in bone marrow and blood monocytes in man [14]. The results are interpreted on the basis of current concepts hypothesizing that blood monocytes have only one source, i.e., monocytopoiesis in bone marrow [8,9], that cells move undirectionally from bone marrow to blood and tissue, and that monocytopoiesis is governed by several control mechanisms. Macrophage kinetics are not discussed because comprehensive studies in man are lacking and due to the present controversy between the notion that all tissue macrophages arise from blood monocytes and the other one which assumes that macrophage precursors exist in tissue [6].