Functional integrity of cytokineplasts: specific chemotactic and capping responses.

Cytokineplasts (CKP) are motile, membrane-bound, anucleate, granule-poor cytoplasmic fragments that are induced from human blood polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) by the brief application of heat. We examined CKP with respect to specific chemotactic and capping responses, the presence of the N-formyl-peptide chemotactide receptor, and evidence of respiratory burst activity and compared them with CB-cytoplasts, which are fragments created by the centrifugation of cytochalasin B (CB)-treated PMN at high speeds. Under agarose, CKP responded chemotactically to both N-formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine (fmlp) and zymosan-activated serum; CB-cytoplasts responded to neither chemoattractant. Despite the functional differences, both fragments retained N-formyl-peptide receptors as measured by affinity labeling with N-formyl-norleu-leu-phe-norleu-125I-tyr-lys and autoradiography of dried SDS-PAGE gels. For studies of capping we used a murine monoclonal antibody, PMN7C3, which binds a specific, widely distributed membrane component of intact PMN, and on warming, promptly induces capping of ligand-receptor complexes. Rhodamine-conjugated PMN7C3 at 4 degrees C labeled the surface of CKP homogeneously. As the CKP warmed to 37 degrees C, label became concentrated in small fluorescent caps at the rear of migrating fragments. Although CB-cytoplasts also bound the fluorochromed antibody homogeneously in the cold, on warming they were unable to concentrate the label normally. With respect to respiratory burst activity, the situation in the two fragments was reversed: CKP did not generate superoxide anion when stimulated either with phorbol myristate acetate or with fmlp after pretreatment with CB; CB-cytoplasts, as noted earlier by other investigators, did. These two types of cytoplasts with markedly different capabilities have complementary roles in the analysis of PMN function.