Abnormal monocyte chemotaxis in patients with chronic purulent rhinosinusitis: an effect of retroviral p15E-related factors in serum.

Earlier we reported that about 60% of patients suffering from unexplained relapsing of chronic purulent rhinosinusitis show a defective T cell-mediated immunity to commensal microorganisms of the upper respiratory tract. The monocyte chemotactic responsiveness was assessed in 40 of these patients by means of the polarization assay. Impaired FMLP-induced monocyte polarization was found in 26 of the 40 patients tested. The defective chemotactic responsiveness could be explained by a p15E-related factor detectable in the serum of the patients: addition of serum fractions less than 25 kD to healthy donor monocytes resulted in an inhibition of polarization; a monoclonal antibody directed against p15E neutralized this inhibitory effect. In individual patients, a decreased monocyte polarization correlated well with the presence of this p15E-related factor in serum, as well as with defective T cell reactivity.