RESUMEN
Following injection into the abdominal cavity of a C57BL/6 mouse, droplets of emulsified PDMS visible by light microscopy (diameter > or = 1 microm) disseminate to multiple organs of the animal. Because fibrinogen may facilitate dissemination, we compared histologically the accumulation of PDMS droplets in lymph nodes, lungs, spleen, liver, and left kidney of Fib +/+, Fib +/-, and Fib -/- mice of C57BL/6 background 35 and 75 days after intraperitoneal injection of an emulsion of the polymer. We also used ICP-AES to assess the accumulation of silicon in the lymph nodes, livers, and spleens of the animals. The emulsion droplets ranged in diameter from approximately 0.04 to approximately 80 microm. PDMS droplets visible by light microscopy were in all organs of both Fib +/+ mice and Fib +/- mice. In those animals, droplets were invariably either within or adjacent to inflammatory cells, predominantly macrophages. In contrast, PDMS droplets were visible in none of the organs of Fib -/- mice. Despite the absence of visible droplets in them, the lymph nodes, livers, and spleens of Fib -/- mice, like the corresponding organs of Fib +/+ and Fib +/- mice, contained measurable silicon after 35 and 75 days. The amount of silicon, however, was always greater in the organs of Fib +/+ and Fib +/- mice than in the organs of Fib -/- mice. We attribute the presence of silicon in organs that had no histologic evidence of droplets to diffusion of the very smallest droplets/soluble species of PDMS from the abdominal cavity. Taken together, our data and observations implicate a role for fibrinogen in the dissemination of larger PDMS droplets in vivo. We propose this role involves recognition of droplet-bound fibrinogen by macrophages and, perhaps, other inflammatory cells, and the subsequent fibrinogen-facilitated ingestion and/or extracellular movement of the droplets by those cells.