Al. Bas et al., THE EFFECTS OF ACETYLSALICYLIC-ACID ON THE PHAGOCYTIC FUNCTION OF BOVINE NEUTROPHILS IN-VITRO, Revue de Medecine Veterinaire, 149(8-9), 1998, pp. 857
Acetylsalicylic acid (ASA), a cyclooxygenase inhibitor, has been used
for its analgesic and antiinflammatory properties. Its stimulating eff
ect on the immune system has recently been described. In the present s
tudy, the effect of ASA on phagocytic and microbicidal activity was in
vestigated in vitro at the concentrations of 50, 100, 150, 250 and 500
mu g/ml in the peripheral blood polymorphonuclear leucocytes (PMNL) o
f twelve healthy Holstein heifers. The functions of PMNL were evaluate
d with flourescent microscopy using flourochrome dye, acridine orange.
In this study, all the results compared to the controls at the concen
trations of 50, 100 and 150 mu g/ml of ASA revealed that phagocytosis
increased from 74.25 % to 80.3, 80.5 and 83.7 %, respectively. There w
as a statistically significant decrease of phagocytic activity of PMNL
between the 500 mu g/ml of ASA and control group. In addition to this
, the microbicidal activity increased at the dose of 50 mu g/ml of ASA
(97.1 %). Whereas there was a decrease at doses of 250 (87.4 %) and 5
00 mu g/ml of ASA (87.3 %) compared with the control group (92.2 %). T
he results of the in vitro experiments showed that the function of bov
ine polymorphonuclear leucocytes was altered by different concentratio
ns of acetylsalicylic acid.