[Leucocyte chemotaxis and its anomalies (author's transl)].

The chemotaxis of granular leucocytes was studied in vitro using three different methods : direct observation under the microscope, trans-membrane migration in a Boyden's chamber, and migration under agarose. Numerous factors were found to have chemotactic activity, the most potent being C5a a component of the serum complement activated by the classical or the alternative pathway. The origin of chemotaxis anomalies in infectious or inflammatory diseases were traced to cellular or seric disorders. The mechanisms primarily involved in chemotaxis are specific cell membrane receptors, the cytoskeleton and the cyclic nucleotides cAMP cGMP.