Studies of peripheral blood toxic neutrophils as a predictor of coronary risk in Kawasaki disease--the pathogenetic role of hematopoietic colony-stimulating factors (GM-CSF, G-CSF).

Many toxic neutrophils, characterized by cytoplasmic swelling, vacuolization and toxic granulation, can be seen in the acute phase of Kawasaki Disease (KD; mucocutaneous lymph node syndrome). Polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMNs) of 36 patients with acute and convalescent phase KD were studied with reference to their morphological characteristics. The percentage of toxic neutrophils in the acute phase tended to be higher in the group with coronary artery lesions (CAL) than in the group without CAL. The results suggest that observation of toxic neutrophils in the acute phase of KD may be useful in predicting a high risk of CAL. In vitro cultivation studies of PMNs from healthy persons, in the presence of diverse hematopoietic colony-stimulating factors (CSF), revealed that GM-CSF (granulocyte-macrophage-CSF) and G-CSF (granulocyte-CSF) participated in the induction of cytoplasmic vacuolization of PMNs, and that the healthy PMNs morphologically mimicked peripheral PMNs seen in the acute phase of KD.