Failure of guinea pig plasma kallikrein to cause neutrophil migration.

Guinea pig plasma kallikrein was apparently chemotactic for guinea pig neutrophils when assayed in Boyden's chamber. However, it was concluded that this phenomenon was artificial due to the following reasons: Kallikrein was only chemotactic in the presence of bovine serum albumin (BSA) in the chamber but not when BSA was substituted by guinea pig serum albumin or egg albumin. Kallikrein injection failed to cause dermal tissue leukocytosis. Kallikrein did not polarize neutrophils. A chemoattractant(s) seemed to be generated from BSA preparation time dependently. Although this generation required the enzymatic activity of kallikrein, the chemotactic activity once generated was resistant to a kallikrein inhibitor (diisopropylfluorophosphate) and antiprekallikrein antibody.