Fetal Liver-derived Alveolar Macrophages and Cryptococcus neoformans Infection
Alveolar macrophages (AMs) serve as a first line of defense against respiratory pathogens, including Cryptococcus neoformans, the primary causative agent of cryptococcosis, a deadly pulmonary mycosis which commonly afflicts immunocompromised individuals. While these innate immune cells are thought to play a pivotal role in controlling the outcome of C. neoformans infections, this critical host-:pathogen interaction is more commonly studied in vitro using bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMDM) or immortalized macrophage cell lines that differ in ontogeny and phenotype from AMs. As a solution to this, we utilized fetal liver-derived alveolar-like macrophages (FLAMs) as a model to study the earliest stages of C. neoformans infection.