Effect of cystathionine ketimine on the stimulus coupled responses of neutrophils and their modulation by various protein kinase inhibitors.

Human peripheral blood polymorphonuclear leukocytes were perincubated with cystathionine and cystathionine metabolites found in the urine of the patients with cystathioninuria. Among the cystathionine metabolites, cystathionine ketimine significantly enhanced the N-formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine-induced superoxide generation, but cystathionine and cyclothionine did not enhance the superoxide generation. Cystathionine ketimine also enhanced superoxide generation induced by opsonized zymosan but not those induced by arachidonic acid and phorbol myristate acetate. Superoxide generation induced by cystathionine ketimine was inhibited by genistein, an inhibitor of tyrosine kinase, and was enhanced by 1-(5-isoquinoline-sulfonyl)-2-methyl-piperazine, an inhibitor of protein kinase C.