Neutrophil cell function and migration inhibition studies in Nigerian patients with tropical pyomyositis.

We investigated polymorphonuclear neutrophil (PMN) cell function and migration inhibition factor (MIF) in Nigerian patients with tropical pyomyositis (TP) and in healthy Nigerians as control subjects. The nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT) reduction test revealed that the ability of PMN to form formazan in patients was similar to that of the control subjects. This observation was taken to indicate that there may not be any metabolic defect in PMN of these patients. The MIF assay showed that the lymphocytes of the patients were significantly inefficient in responding in vitro to Staphylococcus aureus as compared with controls (S.D. 26 +/- 8 for patients, 53 +/- 10 for controls; P less than 0.01). This observation suggested that lymphocytes, particularly T-cells, of the patients were probably not primed adequately against S. aureus during the course of infection in vivo. The implications of these findings as they relate to tropical pyomyositis are discussed.