A Characteristics of Phagocytic Plaque on Staphylococcus aureus Layer Formed by Leukocytes of the Alcoholics

This study was conducted to develop a method for direct determination of phagocytic activities in human circulatic systems and to measure the phagocytic activities in human leukocytes from the alcoholics, since phagocytic activity was considered to be very important in human immune mechanism at early stage for the health care of the alcoholics. The subjects for this study were 130 among which 95 males and 3 females were diagnosed as alcoholism and 32 was healthy blood donors. A thin layer of heat-killed Staphylococcus aureus Cowan I was placed on a plastic dish and reacted with whole blood to measure the phagocytic plaque formation by human leukocytes. In order to determine the health conditions of the subjects, some clinical laboratory tests, such as white blood cell counts, hemoglobin contents (Hgb), mean corpuscular volume of red blood cells(MCV), serum electrophoresis, B and T-lymphocytes, T-lymphocyte subtypes and phytohemagglutination test were also implemented. Compared to the non-alcoholism, new and old alcoholic inpatients showed statistically significant differences on levels of Hgb and MCV (p<0.05), but showed that T and B-lymphocyte numbers decreased and Helper T cell/Suppressor T cell ratio ($1.6{\pm}0.8$%) increased. Compared to non-alcoholism, phagocytic plaque activities of leukocytes from alcoholic patients decreased significantly and an unusual pattern in phagocytic plaque was observed, showing a strange body and chain shaped phagocytosis. Based upon these results, it is concluded that a phagocytic-plaques of Staphylococcus aureus Cowan I by leukocytes was very simple and useful method for the early immunological determination of phagocytic activities in alcoholic patients without requiring any special equipments.

Staphylococcus aureus를 이용한 주정중독환자 백혈구의 Phagocytic Plaque 형성력

주정중독환자에서 초기 비특이적 면역력의 주된 반응인 백혈구 탐식작용을 이용하여 이들 환자들의 건강관리를 용이하게 할 수 있는지를 알아 보기위하여 백혈구 탐식 작용력을 측정하고자 실시하였고, 연구대상은 주정중독 의존형으로 진단된 남자 95명, 여자 3명과 대조군으로서는 건강한 헌혈자 32명을 대상으로 실시하였다. 또한 주정중독환자의 건강상태를 확인하기 위하여 백혈구수, 혈색소, 적혈구 평균용적, 혈청 단백질 전기영동, 림프구 아형 분리 및 림파구 유약화 시험도 실시하였따. 분석결과에서 혈색소와 적혈구 평균용적은 대조군에 비하여 신, 장기 입원 환자군에서 유의할만한 차이를 보였으며(P<0.05), 총 T와 B 림프구는 감소하였고, $T_{Helper}/T_{suppressor}$ 비율은 $1.6{\pm}0.8%$로 증가하였다. 특히 신, 장기입원 주정중독자의 Staphylococcus aureus Cowan I을 사용한 백혈구의 phagocytic plaque 형성력에서도 대조군에 비하여 현저하게 저하되었고, 이제까지 보고된 바 없는 특이한 strange body, 사슬상 탐식현상을 관찰 할 수 있었다. 따라서 Staphylococcus aureus Cowan I을 사용한 백혈구의 phagocytic plaque 형성 시험은 특별한 기구가 없이 간단하게 이용 가능하여 주정중독환자의 초기 면역력 측정에 매우 유용한 방법임을 알 수 있었다.