Granulocyte-colony stimulating factor improves an impaired bactericidal function in neutrophils from STZ-induced diabetic rats.

To evaluate whether G-CSF improves an impaired production of oxygen-derived free radicals in diabetic neutrophils, we studied the effect of G-CSF on chemiluminescence amplified by a luciferin analog (CLA-DCL) and luminol (L-DCL) in response to fMLP in neutrophils from STZ-induced diabetic rats. Both CLA-DCL and L-DCL in diabetic neutrophils were significantly reduced, and L-DCL was more sensitive to this inhibition than CLA-DCL. G-CSF did not change the basal chemiluminescence in either control or diabetic neutrophils, but it apparently primed CLA-DCL and L-DCL. Although, in diabetic neutrophils, the priming effect of G-CSF to both CLA-DCL and L-DCL was less compared with that in control neutrophils, L-DCL was more sensitive than CLA-DCL to this priming effect. Because bacterial infection is still an important cause of morbidity and mortality in diabetic patients, these data suggest that G-CSF may be useful as a drug to prevent the aggravation of bacterial infection in diabetic patients.