Simultaneous flow cytometric measurement of phagocytotic and oxidative burst activity of polymorphonuclear leukocytes in whole bovine blood.

Polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) are important in host defence against bacterial infection in the bovine mammary gland and techniques are needed to evaluate their functional activities. A rapid and sensitive two-color flow cytometric method for simultaneous measurement of phagocytosis rate and oxidative burst activity of bovine PMN in small blood samples is described. The method utilizes the oxidation of intracellular dihydrorhodamine 123 to green fluorescent rhodamine 123 by oxidative burst products that were generated by incubating the PMNs with red fluorescent propidium iodide labeled Staphylococcus aureus. Phagocytosis and oxidative burst both increased with time of incubation and with increasing bacteria concentration. A 20 min phagocytosis time and a ratio of 25 bacteria to one cell were considered optimal for assaying bovine blood PMN activity. To further evaluate the proposed two-color flow cytometric method, blood samples were treated with factors known to interfere with phagocytosis and oxidative burst metabolism of human neutrophils. Incubation of whole bovine blood with cytochalasin B at 10 micrograms ml-1 resulted in an approximate 70% decrease in the phagocytosis rate with a concommitant decrease in oxidative burst activity. Staurosporine (2 micrograms ml-1) inhibited bovine neutrophil oxidative burst formation for 95% while the phagocytosis was unaffected. PMNs in whole blood samples of ten cows differed significantly in their ability to phagocytose Staphylococcus aureus and to produce reactive oxygen products. However, only a weak correlation was detected between the burst activity:phagocytosis ratio of ten individual cows as indicated by the ROD/PI index.