Immunological studies on Crohn's disease. VI. Increased chemiluminescent response of peripheral blood monocytes.

Oxidative metabolic activity can be measured by a luminol-dependent chemiluminescence (CL) assay. To investigate the phagocytic activity of blood cells, CL responses were assessed in 26 patients with Crohn's disease (CD) and 26 healthy controls, using heparinized peripheral blood. Significantly (p less than 0.005) increased CL responses of whole blood cells were found in 26 patients with CD. However, CL activity was not directly related to disease activity nor to other clinical parameters. The CL responses did not correlate with the number of white blood cells, neutrophils nor monocytes. In consideration of the increased CL, there is the possibility that functional abnormalities in some components of blood cells leads to elevations in CL responses of whole blood cells. To obtain support for this proposal, blood cells were separated into neutrophils and monocytes, and CL of neutrophils or monocytes were studied, using the same number of each type of cells as that of the controls. The oxidative metabolism of monocytes from CD patients was significantly (p less than 0.005) higher than that of controls, while the phagocytic activity of neutrophils was similar to that in the controls. These data suggest that elevations in CL activity of whole blood cells were not due to alterations of the neutrophils but rather to abnormalities in the monocytes. Further attention directed to the significance of monocyte function in the pathogenesis of CD is warranted.