Elicitation of peritoneal polymorphonuclear neutrophils from mice

Although the mouse has been used extensively as a model for the study of host-parasite relationships, murine neutrophils have not been used nearly as often as PMNs from other species for in vitro functional assays due to lack of a commonly used procedure for murine neutrophil collection. These studies compared two eliciting agents and characterized the phagocytic and bactericidal activity of murine polymorphonuclear neutrophils elicited from the peritoneal cavity. We examined the effects of mouse strain (BALB/c, C57BL/6 and DBA/2) and sex, eliciting agent (0.2% glycogen vs. 3% fluid thioglycolate medium) and donor sacrifice method (ether vs. cervical dislocation) on the number of neutrophils recovered in peritoneal exudate. The greatest number of neutrophils was harvested when mice were sacrificed 5 h after intraperitoneal injection of 2.5 ml of 3% thioglycolate medium. This method as described allows reproducible collection of adequate numbers of neutrophils for use in in vitro assays of neutrophils phagocytic and bactericidal function.