IMPAIRED NEUTROPHIL FUNCTION IN THE CUTANEOUS FORM OF ANTHRAX

Spontaneous and Bacillus anthracis induced luminol-dependent chemilumi nescence of neutrophils was studied in six patients with the cutaneous form of anthrax. Spontaneous chemiluminescence in anthrax was decreas ed compared to the healthy controls (p<0.05). B. anthracis, opsonized by complement-containing sera from patients, induced chemiluminescence in neutrophils from control donors but not from patients. B. anthraci s, opsonized by complement-free sera from the patients, did not cause an increase in chemiluminescence response in either the patient or the control neutrophils. Also, B. anthracis, opsonized with normal sera a nd nonopsonized, did not induce chemiluminescence in either patient or control neutrophils. It was concluded that oxidative metabolism by ne utrophils is impaired in anthrax, whereas the functional capacity of a ntibodies seems to be unaffected.