Impact of intracellular calcium reduction on neutrophil migration in sepsis patients / 中华微生物学和免疫学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the relationship between intracellular calcium level and neutrophil migration dysfunction in patients with sepsis.Methods:This study retrospectively collected 21 blood samples of patients with sepsis in the First Hospital of Jilin University from December 2017 to September 2018, and 20 healthy people were included as the control group. Peripheral blood neutrophils were isolated from the healthy controls and patients with sepsis using magnetic-activated cell sorting. Multichannel microfluidic microarray technology was used to detect the chemotactic migration of neutrophils. The levels of calcium in neutrophils from healthy controls and sepsis patients as well as in neutrophils from healthy controls that were pretreated with calcium chelators BAPTA-AM and EDTA were detected by flow cytometry using the calcium indicator Fluo-4.Results:The intracellular calcium levels were lower in neutrophils from sepsis patients than in those from healthy controls ( P<0.01). BAPTA-AM and EDTA could reduce the calcium level in neutrophils of healthy controls ( P<0.01). Microfluidics revealed that the migration speed, distance and gap-passing rate of neutrophils in microfluidics were significantly reduced after the decrease of intracellular calcium ( P<0.01). Conclusions:Reduced calcium levels in neutrophils of patients with sepsis may be closely related to the decreased cell migration. This study suggests that the migration impairment of neutrophils can be improved by regulating intracellular calcium levels, which provides a new idea for further research.