The relationship between thermal injury and neutrophil membrane functions as measured by chemotaxis, adherence and spreading

Abstract

Thermal injury is frequently associated with acquired immunologic abnormalities including impaired neutrophil (PMN) chemotaxis. To determine if the postburn PMN chemotactic abnormality was associated with abnormalities of other PMN membrane dependent functions, neutrophil adherence, spreading and chemotaxis were measured synchronously and serially in 22 thermally injured patients with mean TBSA burns of 36 per cent. PMN adherence and spreading were greater in the burn patients than in the controls ( P<0·05; Student's t test). No relationship was noted between neutrophil adherence or spreading with changes in the total neutrophil count. A correlation was found between neutrophil chemotaxis and adherence ( χ 2=4·13, P<0·05) but not between neutrophil chemotaxis and spreading ( χ 2= 2·3, P>0·10). Thus a correlation between neutrophil chemotaxis and adherence was found, suggesting that other neutrophil cell membrane functions, besides chemotaxis, may be affected by thermal injury.