J Clin Invest. 2012 Aug;122(8):2776-9. doi: 10.1172/JCI63939. Epub 2012 Jul 23.
Many chemotherapeutic regimens produce neutropenia, which predisposes to microbial infection. However, not all neutropenic individuals develop infections, so the ability to predict this outcome would be a powerful clinical tool. In this issue of the JCI, Malka et al. describe a dynamic system model of neutrophil bactericidal activity that confirms and extends the concept of critical neutrophil concentration. The authors demonstrate that when the neutrophil concentration approaches the critical concentration, bacterial populations in contact with them exhibit bistability. Their experimental findings raise the intriguing possibility of greater variability in bactericidal activity of neutrophils from healthy adults than heretofore recognized; their model predicts that this could have life-and-death consequences.
许多化疗方案都会导致中性粒细胞减少，从而使患者易发生微生物感染。然而，并非所有中性粒细胞减少的个体都会发生感染，因此预测这种结果的能力将是一种强大的临床工具。在本期 JCI 中，Malka 等人描述了一个中性粒细胞杀菌活性的动态系统模型，该模型证实并扩展了临界中性粒细胞浓度的概念。作者证明，当中性粒细胞浓度接近临界浓度时，与之接触的细菌种群表现出双稳性。他们的实验结果提出了一个有趣的可能性，即健康成年人的中性粒细胞杀菌活性的可变性可能比以前认识到的更大；他们的模型预测，这可能会产生生死攸关的后果。
