Defective regulation of chemotaxis in cirrhosis.

The presence of a severe leukotactic defect in cirrhotic patients has been confirmed. This defect is due to the presence of abnormally high levels of the chemotactic factor inactivator (CFI) in serums of patients with hepatic cirrhosis. This inactivator inhibits each of three different chemotactic factors tested and does so in an irreversible manner. As would be predicted by these results, generation of chemotactic activity in cirrhotic serums by a complement-activating agent is markedly impaired. Physicochemical features of CFI in cirrhotic serum differ slightly from that found in normal human serum. These results indicate the nature of the chemotactic defect in cirrhotic patients and may explain the increased susceptibility of these patients to bacterial infections and some of their reported defected in expression of cellular immunity.