Neutrophil chemotaxis and killing function in patients with recurrent furunculosis

Furuncle is an acute, usually necrotic, infection of a hair follicle with Staph. aureus. Chemotaxis in one of the initial host responses to staphylococcal invasion. Disorders of PMNs motility are rare but when present are associated with recurrent infections. In the present study, PMNs chemotaxis and killing function were assessed in 40 patients with recurrent furunculosis and 10 controls. This study revealed that, the chemotactic response of PMNs to zymosan activated serum was significantly higher in patients with active furunculosis than controls. However, there was no significant statistical difference between neutrophil killing function of patients and controls. Therefore, it was concluded that there is no basic cellular defect of the neutrophil in the studied patients