Chemiluminescent and flow cytometric analysis of gamma interferon preincubation on neonatal and adult rat polymorphonuclear leukocytes.

Gamma interferon (IFN-gamma) has multiple immunomodulating effects and has been postulated as a possible immunopotentiating agent for the prevention or treatment of neonatal infections. This report describes the effect of rat recombinant IFN-gamma on the oxidative burst activity and CD11b expression of neonatal and adult rat polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNL). Oxidative burst activity was assessed by chemiluminescence and dihydrorhodamine flow cytometry. Neonatal PMNL exhibited significantly less oxidative burst activity than did adult PMNL. IFN-gamma mildly enhanced the chemiluminescence response of PMNL from both the rat pups and adults, but this effect was not statistically significant when analyzed by a multivariate model of repeated-measures analysis of variance for both chemiluminescence and dihydrorhodamine flow cytometry. CD11b expression was also not significantly enhanced by IFN-gamma.