Chemiluminescence measurements of immune cells--a tool in immunobiology and clinical research.

Since the initial observation of chemiluminescence associated with metabolic stimulation of polymorphonuclear leukocytes a multitude of studies have confirmed that chemiluminescence is a) dependent on the generation of activated oxygen species and b) intimately correlated to the paramount function of granulocytes: to kill bacteria and to cause tissue damage at sites of chronic inflammation. Chemiluminescence is not exclusively generated by polymorphonuclear leukocytes and certainly not only generated by phagocytic stimuli. Besides phagocytic stimuli, surface active reagents (e.g. phorbol myristate acetate), lectins, antigen-antibody complexes, complement components, and some lymphokines are able to evoke chemiluminescence responses in polymorphonuclear leukocytes, monocytes, and macrophages. In this contribution we present evidence for a dependence of macrophage chemiluminescence during phagocytosis on the calcium binding protein calmodulin. In a second example of macrophage chemiluminescence we demonstrate that macrophage chemiluminescence is a good tool for testing the mediator function of a lymphokine, namely macrophage cytotoxicity factor. In a clinical application we determined the zymosan-induced and luminol-amplified chemiluminescence in diluted whole blood samples from healthy volunteers to establish the normal range of chemiluminescence activity of phagocytic cells. A significant day time variability of the chemiluminescence activity was observed in 6 volunteers. Therefore, blood sampling for the chemiluminescence measurements was standardized. Compared with the control group the specific chemiluminescence activity (activity related to 10(3) phagocytic cells) was significantly increased in both 1) patients with acute inflammatory disease and 2) in patients with carcinoma. The specific chemiluminescence activity of the two groups of patients did not differ.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)