Neutrophil chemotaxis in cerebral astrocytoma.

Neutrophil chemotaxis was evaluated for five patients with a primary intracerebral malignancy. All patients had intratumor cysts and these fluids with corresponding serum and cerebrospinal fluid were tested for their chemotactic ability. The ability of cyst fluid to effect neutrophil chemotaxis was diminished in comparison to serum from either patients or control population. Cyst fluids had lower complement levels than serum and did not have a humoral chemotactic inhibitor. The neutrophils for both the patient and control groups had similar chemotaxis to a given chemotactic stimulus suggesting that this malignancy does not have an accompanying peripheral blood phagocytic cell chemotactic defect. Chemotaxis, the migration of phagocytic cells, is a fundamental requisite for the inflammatory and the immune response.