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This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 295/1/L134    most recent 00338.2007v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Haufe, D. Articles by Koch, T. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Haufe, D. Articles by Koch, T.

Leukocyte antibacterial functions are not impaired by perfluorocarbon exposure in vitro

¹Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus, and ²Institute of Anatomy, Technical University Dresden, Dresden, Germany

Submitted 21 August 2007 ; accepted in final form 24 April 2008

Application of liquid, aerosolized, and vaporized perfluorocarbons (PFC) in acute lung injury has shown anti-inflammatory effects. Although this may be beneficial in states of pulmonary hyperinflammation, it also could increase susceptibility to nosocomial lung infection. We hypothesized that PFC impair cellular host defense and therefore investigated in an in vitro model the influence of perfluorohexane (PFH) on crucial mechanisms of bacterial elimination in human neutrophils and monocytes. Using scanning and transmission electron microscopy, we could show membrane-bound and ingested PFH particles that morphologically did not alter adherence and phagocytosis of Escherichia coli or leukocyte viability. The amount of adherent and phagocytosed bacteria as determined by flow cytometry was not influenced in cells only pretreated with PFH for 1 and 4 h. When PFH was present during E. coli challenge, bacterial adherence was decreased in polymorphonuclear neutrophils, but respective intracellular uptake was not impaired and was even significantly promoted in monocytes. Overall, E. coli-induced respiratory burst capacity was not reduced by PFH. Our findings provide evidence that key functions of innate host defense are not compromised by PFH treatment in vitro.

phagocytosis; burst; perfluorohexane; anti-inflammatory; immune