Experience with a skin chamber technique for leucocyte migration studies.

An in vivo skin chamber method using lesions obtained by suction was evaluated. Neither dyspigmentation nor scarring were seen after 2 mth. The number of leucocytes accumulated in the collection chamber was correlated to the area of the lesion. Reproducibility remained essentially unchanged over an extended period and was 19% for one chamber and 13.6% for determinations with two chambers. No correlation was found between results obtained with the skin chamber technique and with chemotaxis or random migration as determined by an underagarose technique. When factors influencing in vivo and in vitro migration were studied, it was found that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs when given to arthritis patients or healthy volunteers inhibit leucocyte migration in vivo while in vitro migration was unchanged. Activated serum and LTB4 attracted leucocytes both in vivo and in vitro. The attraction by serum appeared at least partly to be caused by C5a. Polymorphonuclear leucocytes harvested from skin chambers were chemotactically deactivated and their bactericidal capacity reduced. The chemiluminescent response to formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine and opsonized zymosan was increased. Exposed to zymosan activated serum, blood leucocytes showed a similar functional modification as leucocytes harvested from a skin chamber, and our findings suggest that the altered function of leucocytes in an inflammatory focus is largely the result of their exposure to chemotactic factors.