Anti-body-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) function of peripheral blood polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) after autologous bone marrow transplantation (ABMT).

Rapid recovery of the number and function of polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) is critical to recovery from bone marrow transplantation. Although it is relatively easy to measure PMN number recovery, the evaluation of the functional recovery of these cells has not been adequately examined. The ability of peripheral blood PMNs to perform antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) was assessed in 25 patients undergoing autologous bone marrow transplantation (ABMT). PMNs were evaluated at a single cell level for ADCC function as measured by their ability to form plaques in antibody-sensitized ox erythrocyte (oxE) monolayers. The PMNs demonstrated low or absent ADCC function in the first week after completion of high-dose chemotherapy, regardless of primary diagnoses or myeloablative regimens. Although recovery to a neutrophil count of 500/microliters was prolonged in patients with AML (mean 40.2 days; range 25-67 days), functional activity of PMNs appeared much earlier (mean 19.6 +/- 6.1 days; range 2-65 days) in this group of patients compared to the group of patients with other diagnoses in which recovery to a neutrophil count of 500/microliters and the recovery of functional activity of PMNs occurred at roughly the same time. This single cell assay provided a useful method for determining ADCC functional ability of recovering PMNs post-BMT since few cells were required for each assay. This approach may also be useful in determining optimal timing of immune therapies post-ABMT, relying on myeloid cells as effector cells.