Subject(s)
Neutrophils/physiology , Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive/physiopathology , Humans , Immunoglobulin A/immunology , Immunoglobulin G/immunology , Immunoglobulin M/immunology , Luminescent Measurements , Neutrophils/immunology , Neutrophils/metabolism , Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive/immunology , Severity of Illness IndexABSTRACT
The study was undertaken to obtain additional data on the role of neutrophils in the pathogenesis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Various functional parameters of neutrophilic functional activity, i.e. phagocytosis, chemotaxis, random migration, oxidative metabolism (3 types of chemiluminescence: spontaneous formylmethionyl peptide-stimulated, and prodigiosan-stimulated), and the level of circulating immune complexes of different size were determined in patients with IPF and healthy individuals. The patients showed a decrease in phagocytosis and an increase in neutrophilic chemotaxis and oxidative metabolism, which was related to the output of toxic oxygen forms. The changes revealed were found to be associated with the activity of an pathological process. The findings suggest that neutrophils can be involved both in the development of and in the occurrence of a pathological process in IPF.
Subject(s)
Neutrophils/physiology , Pulmonary Fibrosis/etiology , Adult , Antigen-Antibody Complex/immunology , Chemotaxis, Leukocyte , Humans , Luminescent Measurements , N-Formylmethionine Leucyl-Phenylalanine , Neutrophil Activation , Oxidative Stress/physiology , Phagocytosis , Prodigiozan , Pulmonary Fibrosis/immunology , Pulmonary Fibrosis/metabolismABSTRACT
The authors describe changes in functional activity of peripheral blood leukocytes, namely in the absorptive capacity, metabolic activation, chemotaxis in vivo and in vitro in patients with grave acute pneumonia (n-102) and destructive pneumonia (n-16). At the stage of active inflammation, the patients with acute pneumonia showed a decrease in leukocyte function (chemotaxis and phagocytosis) and metabolic activation of that cell type, related to the growth of the output of the toxic forms of oxygen. The changes revealed were found to be dependent on the activity of inflammation and volume of infiltration in the pulmonary tissue. The functional changes in leukocytes discovered in patients suffering from acute pneumonia, particularly in those with destruction confirm the possibility that those cells are involved into the pathogenesis of the destructive process.