[Parameters of peripheral whole blood neutrophil activity in women with pregnancy induced hypertension].

OBJECTIVES: Pregnancy induced hypertension is believed to be a state of neutrophil overactivity, however all previous studies were done on isolated cells. DESIGN: To study neutrophil activity in whole blood of PIH women. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Neutrophil activity was estimated without isolation, in peripheral whole blood of 23 PIH women and 26 normal pregnant controls. The chemiluminescence test was performed without any stimulation and upon stimulation of neutrophils with fMLP, OZ and PMA, before and after pre-activation with TNF-alpha. The results were corrected according to the haemoglobin concentration and (%) of neutrophils. The percentage of whole blood neutrophils indicating expression of selectins CD18, CD11b, integrin CD62L and mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) of these molecules were studied on flow-cytometry. RESULTS: The study revealed that neutrophil chemiluminescence was not significantly higher in PIH women and after correction coefficient used it was even lower in PIH patients. TNF-alpha preactivation had no influence on chemiluminescence results. Expression of CD11b expressed as MFI value was significantly increased while that of CD62L, expressed as (%) of positive cells and MFI value--decreased in PIH patients. CONCLUSIONS: Changes of neutrophil CD11b and CD62 expression indicate increased activity of these cells in PIH women, however low production of reactive oxygen species estimated by corrected chemiluminescence test especially after TNF-alpha pre-activation, indicates that this form of their reactivity is rather "exhausted" during PIH.