Influence of D-penicillamine on metabolic and functional activities of neutrophil granulocytes.

Influence of D-Penicillamine (DPA) on metabolic and functional activities of neutrophil granulocytes was investigated in vitro by measuring superoxide anion production and beta-glucuronidase release as well as by determining phagocytic and intracellular killing activities of cells. Preincubation with DPA in the concentration range of 0.5-5.0 mM resulted in 28-53% increase in superoxide anion production by granulocytes stimulated with 10(-7) M FMLP. DPA in the same concentration range resulted in 145-371% rise in the FMLP-stimulated beta-glucuronidase release. However, uptake and subsequent killing of viable Staphylococcus aureus was not influenced by incubation of granulocytes with various concentrations of DPA (0.5-5.0 mM). From these results we conclude that DPA may influence the superoxide anion production and beta-glucuronidase release in granulocytes without altering the phagocytic and intracellular killing activities of these cells. We suppose that the unchanged antibacterial activity of neutrophil granulocytes is resulted by the two opposite DPA effects: acting extracellularly reduces free radical level while the direct membrane effect results in enhancing metabolic activity in granulocytes.