Bovine neutrophils treated with chemotactic agents: morphologic changes.

Neutrophils were isolated from the peripheral blood of cattle. After the neutrophils were incubated with zymosan-activated serum, the neutrophils changed from spherical to a bipolar shape. Ninety percent of the neutrophils became bipolar in 5 to 10 minutes. Bacterial cell filtrate and casein also induced bipolar shape changes in neutrophils, but N-formyl-L-methionyl-L-leucinyl-L-phenylalanine did not. The neutrophil-shape-change response was a rapid in vitro assay to evaluate early chemotactic events.