Mc. Fornari et al., DECREASED CHEMOTAXIS OF NEUTROPHILS IN ACROMEGALY AND HYPERPROLACTINEMIA, European journal of endocrinology, 130(5), 1994, pp. 463-468
Both growth hormone (GH) and prolactin (PRL) modulate immune responses
in vitro. We studied chemotaxis under agarose of polymorphonuclear ce
lls from patients with acromegaly or hyperprolactinemia. Polymorphonuc
lear cells were purified by dextran sedimentation and subjected to sti
mulation with N-formylmethionyl-phenylalanine. The results showed a de
crease in both directed migration (acromegaly: 971 +/- 155 mu m; hyper
polactinemia: 1123 +/- 137 mu m, expressed as mean +/- SEM) and sponta
neous migration (acromegaly: 270 +/- 77 mu m; hyperpolactinemia: 298 /- 77 mu m) when compared to similar features from normal controls (di
rected migration: 2019 +/- 99 mu m; spontaneous migration: 590 +/- 49
mu m) and from patients with non-GH/PRL-secreting pituitary tumours (d
irected migration: 1633 +/- 282 mu m; spontaneous migration: 562 +/- 1
16 mu m), suggesting that this defect is selective for acromegaly and
hyperprolactinemia. Our results point to a putative direct or indirect
effect of GH and PRL on polymorphonuclear cell chemotaxis.