The influence of thymus extract (TFX) on the phagocytosis and the bactericidal capacity of polymorphonuclear neutrophils from patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus.

The influence of thymus extract (TFX) on phagocytosis and bactericidal capacity of polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) from patient with insulin-dependent diabetes was studied. In previous observations PMN from these patients revealed the serum-related defect of bacterial killing. The preincubation of cells with standard dose of TFX significantly increased ingestion rate and recovered the bactericidal capacity to normal values. The augmentation of bactericidal capacity due to preincubation with TFX appeared to be dose-dependent and not related to other blood cells participation. The increase of bacterial killing was also evident, when TFX was applied after phagosome formation. The presented studies indicate that, among numerous peptides, thymus extracts contain those exerting their hormone-like activity on polymorphonuclear neutrophils. The observations may be of clinical importance.