Suppression of zymosan-induced chemiluminescence of whole blood by conjugates composed of drug, guinea pig skin extracts and sera from patients with suspicious drug eruptions.

Conjugates composed of drug, guinea pig skin soluble fraction, and sera from 50 patients with various types of drug eruptions were prepared by the incubation of these mixtures for 60 min at 37 degrees C. And the effects of conjugates on zymosan-induced chemiluminescence (ZI-CL) in whole blood were examined. The conjugates obtained from 32 cases significantly suppressed ZI-CL of whole blood. The mean value of peak intensities of CL in the presence of their conjugates showed 62% of those after the pretreatment of mixtures consisting of drug, soluble fraction and sera from healthy donors. In the systems of non-opsonized and opsonized zymosan-induced CL of leukocyte-erythrocyte sediment, similar inhibitory effects were obtained in both systems in the presence of conjugates, but the time course of CL response was slower in the system with non-opsonized zymosan. In other experiments with the use of immune complexes, which were formed by human albumin and antihuman albumin goat serum in vitro, soluble immune complexes suppressed ZI-Cl of whole blood. These results suggest that immune complexes may be formed during incubation of conjugates and block the receptors on the surfaces of granulocytes, resulting in the suppression of ZI-CL.