Fibroblasts and monocyte macrophages contract and degrade three-dimensional collagen gels in extended co-culture

Abstract

Abstract Background Inflammatory cells are believed to play a prominent role during tissue repair and remodeling. Since repair processes develop and mature over extended time frames, the present study was designed to evaluate the effect of monocytes and fibroblasts in prolonged culture in three-dimensional collagen gels. Methods Blood monocytes from healthy donors and human fetal lung fibroblasts were cast into type I collagen gels and maintained in floating cultures for three weeks. Results Fibroblast-mediated gel contraction was initially inhibited by the presence of monocytes (P P P 2 production was significantly increased by co-culture and its presence attenuated collagen degradation. Conclusion The current study, therefore, demonstrates that interaction between monocytes and fibroblasts can contract and degrade extracellular matrix in extended culture.

Keywords

• Collagen degradation
• IL-1
• lung fibroblasts
• monocytes
• neutrophil elastase
• PGE₂
• TNF-α