A number of disease states are characterized by the accumulation of inflammatory cells at the site of tissue injury. Mononuclear phagocytes (M phi) represent key cellular mediators of inflammation via the production of regulatory and chemokinetic cytokines. One such cytokine, macrophage inflammatory protein-1 alpha (MIP-1 alpha), has been shown to be one of the major inducible chemotaxins expressed from murine macrophage cell lines (RAW 264.7). We postulated that MIP-1 alpha is a major monocyte chemoattractant produced by resident M phi, and the magnitude of production of this chemotaxin may depend upon the specific population of M phi studied. To test this hypothesis, we isolated alveolar macrophages (AM phi) and peritoneal macrophages (PM phi) from CD-1 mice by bronchoalveolar and peritoneal lavage, respectively. Recombinant murine MIP-1 alpha accounted for significant neutrophil chemokinetic rather than chemotactic activity, as assessed by checkerboard analysis. LPS-stimulated AM phi-derived monocyte chemotactic activity (MCA) was significantly neutralized by specific rabbit anti-murine MIP-1 alpha serum. In contrast, PM phi-derived conditioned media failed to produce MCA attributable to MIP-1 alpha. The production of MIP-1 alpha was then characterized from both AM phi and PM phi. While unstimulated AM phi and PM phi failed to express MIP-1 alpha mRNA, both AM phi and PM phi challenged with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) expressed MIP-1 alpha mRNA in a time-dependent fashion.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)