Decreased activation of the respiratory burst in neutrophils from AIDS patients with previous Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia.

Neutrophils from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-negative blood donors, asymptomatic HIV-positive patients, AIDS patients with previous Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP), and AIDS patients without previous PCP were compared for their ability to activate the respiratory burst, measured as luminol-amplified chemiluminescence. P. carinii, Staphylococcus aureus, phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate, and FMLP were used to stimulate the neutrophils. When stimulated with P. carinii, neutrophils from PCP patients had a significantly lower response than the other groups, whereas no difference was found when S aureus was used. A somewhat but not significantly lower response to P. carinii was also seen in non-PCP patients compared with HIV-negative donors. Priming of the neutrophils with recombinant granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) or recombinant human granulocyte-macrophage (GM)-CSF corrected this defect. A similar effect of these cytokines was seen on phagocytosis, whereas the chemiluminescence in unprimed cells did not correlate with phagocytosis.