Spontaneous motility and chemotaxis of neutrophils is influenced by glycocorticosteroid therapy.

The migration of neutrophils is an important part of the allergic inflammatory response. The aim of our study was to investigate the effect of glucocorticosteroids (GCS) on the stimulated and unstimulated migration of neutrophils. The study comprised 103 asthmatics including 44 subjects under GCS therapy (20 GCS resistant and 24 GCS sensitive) as well as 96 healthy control individuals. Unstimulated (random) motility as well as chemotactic response towards fMLP (10-8 mol/l) were determined after Boyden method. Neutrophil motility was determined by the distance of the leading front in filter. In both resistant and sensitive asthmatics under GCS therapy we observed significantly increased unstimulated motility as compared to normal controls (p < 0.001). However, this effect was not demonstrated in the GCS untreated group. Neutrophil chemotaxis towards fMLP was increased in GCS untreated group as compared to healthy controls (p < 0.05). In GCS sensitive subjects the chemotatic activity was decreased. In GCS resistant asthmatics it was moderately increased. We conclude that increased unstimulated neutrophil motility might be one of the immunosuppressive mechanisms of GCS by preventing the cell accumulation at the sites of inflammation.