A 67-year-old pensioner presents to his doctor

with a respiratory infection. The man has worked as a coal miner all his life,

and this lifelong exposure to coal dust has led to the development of a disease

called coal worker pneumoconiosis, which results in a chronic cough and

significant shortness of breath. Coal dust is normally phagocytosed by alveolar

macrophages, but the inorganic components are not degraded by the lysosomal apparatus

of macrophages. However, if their phagocytic capacity is exceeded and

pro-inflammatory factors and aggressive enzymes are released from macrophages,

inflammation develops. This can lead to fibrotic changes in the lungs. This

disease makes even mild respiratory infections in this patient more severe.

What is another name for alveolar macrophages?