Leukocytic function in hypogammaglobulinemia

Ira D. Mickenberg; Richard K. Root; Sheldon M. Wolff

doi:10.1172/JCI106370

¹National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Laboratory of Clinical Investigation, Bethesda, Maryland 20014

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¹National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Laboratory of Clinical Investigation, Bethesda, Maryland 20014

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¹National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Laboratory of Clinical Investigation, Bethesda, Maryland 20014

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Published in Volume 49, Issue 8 on August 1, 1970
J Clin Invest. 1970;49(8):1528–1538. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI106370.
© 1970 The American Society for Clinical Investigation

Published August 1, 1970 - Version history

The phagocytic, bactericidal, and metabolic capabilities of circulating blood leukocytes from three adults (two males, one female) with hypogammaglobulinemia and recurrent pneumonia, chronic sinusitis, and intestinal giardiasis were studied. These functions were found to be normal when leukocytes from the patients were incubated in media containing normal human serum. Phagocytosis of Staphylococcus albus and polystyrene balls by both patient and normal leukocytes was diminished when the cells were incubated in hypogammaglobulinemic plasma. A similar defect in opsonization by patient plasma was also noted for pneumococci, Escherichia coli and variably with Staphylococcus aureus. Both patient and normal sera had equivalent levels of heat-labile S. albus opsonins; normal serum, however, contained heat-stable S. albus-specific absorbable opsonins in significantly greater quantities to account for its superior opsonic capacity. The addition of commercial gamma globulin or purified IgG to hypogammaglobulinemic sera restored full S. albus opsonic activity. The relevancy of these observations to the impaired host defenses in these patients will be discussed.