CD23 and CD69 expression on human neutrophils of healthy subjects and patients with peripheral arterial occlusive disease.

In this work we studied, on human neutrophils from healthy donors and patients with peripheral arterial occlusive disease, the expression of CD23 and CD69 and the modulatory effects of IFN-gamma, GM-CSF and IL-4. Neutrophils were isolated from 9 patients and 9 healthy subjects and cultured for 24 h in absence or presence of IFN-gamma (1000 U/ml), GM-CSF (10 U/ml) and IL-4 (10 ng/ml). Expression of CD23 and CD69 was analyzed by FACScan cytofluorimeter. Neutrophils of both patients and healthy donors resulted negative for CD23 and CD69 expression immediately after isolation. After 24 h without stimuli, neutrophils from some patients and healthy donors expressed CD23 and CD69. IFN-gamma and GM-CSF had opposite effects on these two antigens, down-regulating CD23 and up-regulating CD69. IFN-gamma, GM-CSF and IL-4 were not able to induce CD23 expression, while CD69 expression was induced in some negative healthy donors and patients by IFN-gamma, GM-CSF and IL-4 respectively. From our data, we identified two subpopulations of neutrophils that, independently from the vascular pathology, showed a different behaviour towards temperature and some cytokines.