Destruction of cultured vascular endothelial cells and red blood cells by immune-activated polymorphonuclear leukocytes

Abstract
The cytotoxicity of human polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs) against autologous red blood cells (RBC) and cultured vascular endothelial cells (EC) was investigated. PMNs were activated by phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) together with immune stimuli such as immune complexes and aggregated IgG. In the standard51Cr-release assay, in which PMA concentration was 5 ng/ml and effector versus target ratio was 5, 76.7% and 34.2% specific51Cr release was observed from RBC and EC, respectively. Significant levels of51Cr were released, albeit to a lesser degree, when PMNs were stimulated by immune stimuli. Further experiments which employed various scavengers of oxygen radicals suggested that hydrogen peroxide was the most potent mediator of this cytotoxicity; the implications of these in vitro observations with the pathogenesis of immune vasculitis are of clinical interest.

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