In-vivo effects of clindamycin on neutrophil function.

Neutrophil functions were evaluated in 13 normal subjects who had received 300 mg of clindamycin orally four times each day for two days. The mean serum concentration of clindamycin was 1.6 mg/l. Intracellular killing of a clindamycin-resistant strain of Staphylococcus aureus increased from 38% to 45%, P less than 0.005, during clindamycin therapy. In contrast, clindamycin therapy did not significantly alter chemotaxis, phagocytosis, chemiluminescence of neutrophils, or the ability of serum to generate chemotactic factor and opsonize particles of yeast. The potentially synergistic relationship between clindamycin and neutrophils may prove to be valuable for the treatment of staphylococcal infections in patients with defects in oxygen-dependent mechanism of neutrophil-mediated bacterial killing such as in chronic granulomatous disease.