Natural cytotoxicity and ADCC activities of peripheral polymorphonuclear-leukocytes

Cytotoxic activity of peripheral polymorphonuclear-leukocytes (PMN) of normal subjects and patients with various diseases was tested against K 562 cells for natural cytotoxicity and P 815 cells for ADCC by means of 51Cr-releasing assay incubated for 14 hours. Natural cytotoxicity of PMN of 20 normal subjects was 5.0% at a mean value. Mean values of PMN natural cytotoxiciy of patients with asthma, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), chronic hepatitis (CH), malignancy, Behçet's disease and SLE weel 10.8%, 4.7%, 1.2%, 1.8% and 1.5% respectively. ADCC activity of normarl PMN was 16.0% at a mean value. Mean values of PMN ADCC activity of patients with asthma, RA, CH, malignancy, Behçet's disease and SLE were 2.6%, 4.9%, 35.7%, 15.0%, 24.5% and 34.4% respectively. Natural cytotoxicity of PMN was around 1/6 of that of lymphocytes and ADCC activity of PMN was around 1/2 of that of lymphocytes. However, in all 4 patients with SLE and 2 of patients with Behçet's disease, ADCC activities of their PMN were higher than those of their lymphocytes.