Relationship between intracellularly and extracellularly generated oxygen metabolites from primed polymorphonuclear leukocytes differs from that obtained from nonprimed cells.

The ability of primed human polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNLs) to respond metabolically to stimulation with formylmethionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine (FMLP) was investigated. Cells isolated from an aseptic inflammatory reaction and from patients with a severe bacterial infection as well as cells that had been treated with a bacterial lipopolysaccharide were investigated. When these cells were compared to peripheral blood cells isolated from healthy controls, they were found to be metabolically primed, i.e., the cells gave rise to an increased chemiluminescence response to subsequent stimulation with the peptide. It was also shown that proportionally more of the activity generated from the primed PMNL was of an intracellular origin compared with that obtained from nonprimed cells. The biological effects induced by radicals produced extracellularly and intracellularly are discussed.