Apoptosis of bovine neutrophils following diapedesis through a monolayer of endothelial and mammary epithelial cells

In a two-chamber system, isolated blood polymorphonuclear neutrophil leukocytes (PMN) were allowed to migrate (5 h, 37 C) in response to bovine complement component C5a across calfskin and rat-tail type I collagen-coated micropore membranes, arterial endothelial, or mammary epithelial cell monolayer on calfskin and rat-tail collagen-coated membranes, respectively. Migration through calfskin collagen-coated membranes resulted in 14.5% +/- 3.4% apoptotic PMN, which was significantly higher than 6.6% +/- 1.2% apoptotic nonmigrated C5a-treated PMN. The addition of an endothelial or epithelial cell monolayer to collagen-coated membranes prevented apoptosis of migrated PMN. After removing the membranes, nonmigrated (untreated and C5a treated) and migrated PMN were incubated for an additional 20 h. At this time point, 69.1% +/- 4.5% and 47% +/- 4.5% of PMN that have migrated through a calfskin-coated membrane and an endothelial monolayer, respectively, were apoptotic, compared with 28.2% +/- 3.0% and 21.1% +/- 4.5% apoptotic untreated and C5a-treated PMN, respectively; 46.9% +/- 4.8% of PMN that have migrated through rat-tail-coated membranes were apoptotic compared with 14.7% +/- 2.3% and 9.3% +/- 1.2% apoptotic untreated and C5a-treated PMN, respectively. Migration across rat-tail collagen-coated membranes with a monolayer of epithelial cells did not affect apoptosis of migrated PMN, even after 20 h of incubation. In conclusion, migration of PMN across collagen-coated membranes (either calfskin or rat-tail collagen) induced an apoptotic response, which was downregulated by a monolayer of endothelial cells and was negated by an epithelial cell monolayer.