Detection of Aggregated Leukocytes in the Circulating Pool during Stress – Demargination Is Not Necessarily a Result of Decreased Leukocyte Adhesiveness

Abstract

Leukocyte endothelial interactions are essential for a normal immune response. It is known that this response is influenced by stress and that the latter induces demargination. We examined the question of whether stress demargination results from a decreased state of leukocyte adhesiveness. Included were various volunteers and patients under different degrees of stress. 66 young athletes before beginning their daily exercises, 67 middle-aged healthy volunteers, 25 patients before ergometry for evaluation of chest pain, 75 patients who were referred to the emergency room with chest pain without ischemia/infarction, 78 patients with ischemia/infarction, 65 patients with minor trauma, 25 with a fracture and 12 with polytrauma. The leukocyte adhesiveness/aggregation (LAA) values were measured with a direct slide test. The respective LAA values were 7.4 ± 4.7, 6.3 ± 4.4, 5.8 ± 3.6, 5.2 ± 3.5, 10.8 ± 8.5, 9.1 ± 5.8, 12.2 ± 6.6 and 19 ± 12.6% of aggregated leukocytes. We conclude that an increase in aggregated white blood cells can be detected in the circulating pool during major stress. It is therefore suggested that stress demargination is not necessarily a result of diminished leukocyte adhesiveness.

Sublethal Endotoxemia Promotes Pulmonary Cytokine-Induced Neutrophil Chemoattractant Expression and Neutrophil Recruitment but Not Overt Lung Injury in Neonatal Rats

“…In humans, this peripheral vascular pool of PMNs has been shown to be equally divided between a circulating pool and one that is adherent or marginated to the vascular endothelium [16]. These two pools are functionally interchangeable [16] and demargination from the marginated to the circulating pool occurs in response to both stress [17] and glucocorticoid exposure [18]. In our experiments, baseline leukocyte counts and neutrophil percentage were similar between the two groups.…”

Effect of 1-24ACTH administration on sheep blood granulocyte functions

“…These results seem to be in contrast with the finding of a decrease of L-selectin and of CD18 in dexamethazone-treated calves [12] and with the well known mechanism of stress-induced neutrophilia [9]: during stress, in fact, the adherence between neutrophils of the marginal pool and endothelial cells decreases. However this might depend on changes in the expression of endothelial mediators or adhesion molecules in spite of an increase in the adhesive properties of PMN [1].…”

“…Data regarding phagocyte functions in spontaneous or experimentally induced stress, are often contradictory and depend on the type of stressor used and on the step of the phagocytic process studied [1,7,8,12,[17][18][19]21]. However the different steps of the phagocytic process have not yet been simultaneously evaluated.…”

Stress in the emergency room: a simple leukocyte to glass adhesion test provides a diagnostic tool to differentiate between stress and infection/inflammation related leukocytosis

“…7 Various authors have used these adhesive properties to reveal the presence of an in¯ammatory response and to assess its severity in various clinical conditions. 8±12 Moreover, increased leukocyte adhesiveness/aggregation was also reported in the peripheral blood during conditions of both physical 13,14 and mental 15±17 stress when the aggregation test was performed in the horizontal technique (ie the slides were dried while in a horizontal position). This technique could not enable the discrimination between infection/in¯ammation and stress as the source of leukocytosis.…”