Measurement of phagocytosis of 32P-labeled Staphylococcus aureus by bovine leukocytes: lysostaphin digestion and inhibitory effect of cream.

A procedure to measure phagocytosis by blood and milk neutrophils was developed. One milliliter of heat-killed 32P-labeled Staphylococcus aureus ([32P]SA) (180-200 X 10(6) CFU), 1 ml of phosphate-buffered saline solution (PBSS), and 2 ml of serum, whole milk, skimmed milk, whey, or PBSS were incubated in duplicate for 60 minutes at 37 C. Isolated blood or milk nuetrophils (polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN), 25 X 10(6) cells/ml; 1 ml) were added and incubated at 37 C for 30 minutes. Unphagocytosed [32P]SA organisms were lysed by incubation with 5 ml of lysostaphin (10 U) at 37 C for 30 minutes, and the PMN and phagocytosed T2P]SA were removed by centrifugation. Radioactivity of the supernatant was determined in a scintillation spectrometer and was used in estimate the percentage of [32P]SA phogocytosed. With this procedure, 25 assays in duplicate could be conducted each day with an expected coefficient of variation between duplicates of 5.6%. Blood PMN phagocytosed 80, 44, 74, 72, and 11% of the [32P]SA when incubated in serum, whole milk, skimmed milk, whey, and PBSS, respectively. Mik PMN phagocytosed 78, 44, 72, 74, and 22%, respectively. The addition of cream to either skimmed milk or serum reduced phagocytosis of [32P]SA by both blood and milk PMN. The inhibitory effect of cream was verified by the microscopic observation that PMN containing large quantities of ingested fat contained fewer S aureus. Seemingly, PMN upon entering the alveoli of the mammary gland become less efficiently phagocytic for bacteria, because of the presence of milk fat globules. This phef intramammary infection by invading mastitic pathogens.