A comparative study of bovine blood and milk neutrophil functions with luminol-dependent chemiluminescence.

In this study, a technique was developed for the chemiluminescence (CL) measurement of bovine milk polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN). In the first study, the effects of cell number and the concentration of phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate (PMA), luminol, latex bead particles, dimethyl sulphoxide (DMSO) and gelatin on the luminol-dependent cellular CL (LDCL) response were assessed with healthy cows in different stages of lactation. In the second study, the LDCL and in vitro bactericidal activity of blood and milk PMN towards Staphylococcus aureus was investigated. In general, the CL activity of blood PMN was consistently higher than that of milk PMN. We found that (a) the optimal cell density in blood and milk cells for maximal LDCL response ranged from 1.5 x 10(6) to 5 x 10(6) cells/mL; (b) the optimal concentrations of PMA, latex beads and luminol for maximal LDCL response were 100-200 ng/ml, 500 particles/PMN and 0.1 mmol/L, respectively. Concentrations of DMSO of 0.5-1% (v/v) did not significantly affect the maximal CL response of PMN. Gelatin concentrations of 0.1 -0.5 mg/ml had no effect on the LDCL of PMN. In addition, the LDCL of PMN was significantly correlated with bactericidal activity towards S. aureus (r = 0.78, p < 0.001 for blood PMN and r = 0.66, p < 0.01 for milk PMN). Under the optimal experimental conditions for measurement of CL produced by bovine blood and milk PMN defined in this study, LDCL assay is an accurate and reproducible technique for the rapid quantification of PMN bactericidal activity in physiological and pathological conditions of high-yielding dairy cows. Copyright 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.