Activity of vancomycin and teicoplanin against human polymorphonuclear leucocytes: a comparative study.

The in-vitro effects of therapeutic concentrations of teicoplanin and vancomycin on the adherence, spontaneous mobility, chemotaxis, phagocytic and candidacidal capacity of human polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs) were studied. Adherence was not affected by the tested concentrations of teicoplanin. A progressive diminishing of adherence was observed in relation to the control, which reached 30% with the maximum concentration of vancomycin (50 mg/L), although this was not statistically significant. An increase in spontaneous mobility was noted after 30 min incubation in the presence of any one of the tested concentrations of both antibiotics, although the results were only significant (P less than 0.05) for 50 mg/L of teicoplanin. Chemotaxis increased, although not significantly (P greater than 0.05) in the presence of 10 and 50 mg/L of teicoplanin, and diminished with respect to the control very significantly (P less than 0.019) when 1 and 50 mg/L of vancomycin were tested. The study of the phagocytic and candidacidal capacity of the PMNs on Candida albicans showed that teicoplanin had a favourable effect on both functions, even though the differences were not statistically significant.