






Departments of
* Pediatrics/Neonatology, and
Environmental and Community Medicine, UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and
Pharmacology and Toxicology, Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey
Correspondence: Barry Weinberger, M.D., Division of Neonatology, St. Peters University Hospital, 254 Easton Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ 08903. E-mail: barryw{at}pol.net
Potential mechanisms underlying impaired chemotactic
responsiveness of neonatal neutrophils were investigated. Two distinct
chemoattractants were compared: bacterially derived
N-formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine (fMLP) and a unique
chemotactic monoclonal antibody, designated DL1.2, which
binds to a neutrophil antigen with an apparent molecular mass of 120
kDa. Chemotaxis of neutrophils toward fMLP, as well as DL1.2, was
reduced in neonates when compared with adult cells. This did not appear
to be a result of decreased fMLP receptor or DL1.2 antigen expression
by neonatal neutrophils. fMLP, but not DL1.2, induced a rapid increase
in intracellular calcium in adult and neonatal cells, which reached a
maximum within 30 s. The calcium response of cells from neonates
to fMLP was reduced when compared with adult cells, and an unresponsive
subpopulation of neonatal neutrophils was identified. NF-
B nuclear
binding activity induced by fMLP and DL1.2, as well as expression of
the p65 NF-
B subunit and I
B-
, was also significantly reduced
in neonatal cells, when compared with adult cells. In contrast,
although fMLP, but not DL1.2, activated p42/44 and p38
mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinases in neutrophils, no differences
were observed between adults and neonates. Chemotaxis of adult and
neonatal neutrophils toward fMLP and DL1.2 was also blocked to a
similar extent by inhibitors of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase, as well
as an inhibitor of NF-
B. These findings indicate that reduced
chemotactic responsiveness in neonatal neutrophils is a result of, at
least in part, aberrations in chemoattractant-induced signaling.
However, the biochemical pathways mediating this defect appear to be
related to the specific chemoattractant.
Key Words: neonates chemotaxis NF-
B
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