FACTOR-SPECIFIC CHANGES IN OXIDATIVE BURST RESPONSE OF HUMAN NEUTROPHILS IN SKIN-WINDOW EXUDATES

Human neutrophils were isolated from blood and aseptic inflammatory exudates. The respiratory burst response was measured as superoxide (O2-) production by a microplate assay system and polarographically as oxygen consumption. Exudate cells exhibited a respiratory burst in response to n-formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine (FMLP) that was two- to threefold higher than the burst exhibited by peripheral blood cells. The 02- production induced by substance P was also found to be fivefold higher in exudate cells, while the metabolic response to other stimulants such as concanavalin A (con A), phorbol-myristate acetate (PMA), NaF, and immuno-complexes was not primed. Serum-treated zymosan (STZ) -stimulated activity was primed by only 11 %. In contrast, superoxide production in response to tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF) was decreased in exudate versus blood cells by about 50 %. Therefore, the skin-window cells, compared to blood cells, appear to be at the same time primed, unmodified, and desensitized. according to the different stimulants employed.