Early pulmonary granulocyte recruitment in response to Streptococcus pneumoniae.

Although polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) are a conspicuous histologic feature of clinical and experimental pneumococcal pneumonia, neither the mechanism nor the magnitude of recruitment of these cells to the lung following lesser pneumococcal challenge is known. We have, therefore, investigated the early process of recruitment of PMN to alveolar spaces after pulmonary inoculation of Streptococcus pneumoniae in doses less than those causing pneumonia. We injected Balb/c mice with water and varying inoculums of pneumococci via an endobronchial catheter. Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) was performed on the inoculated lung at 0, 2, or 4 h after injection. Cellular response was measured and chemotactic activity was assayed on BAL supernatants at each time interval using the migration of human PMN through 3-micron filters in modified Boyden chambers by the leading front techniques. The BAL of normal and control animals (inoculum of sterile water only used for the control animals) yielded 5.03 +/- 1.51 X 10(2) and 0.17 +/- 0.04 X 10(5) PMN, respectively. The PMN recruitment at 4 h as a function of pneumococcal inoculum was described by the following equation: log PMN = 0.751 log Pn + 1.119 (r2 = 0.82, p less than 0.001). The PMN were, therefore, recruited in a dose-dependent manner. That recruitment may be caused by chemotactic substance(s) was suggested by the significant correlation between the PMN response and the distance of in vitro migration: log PMN = 0.057 micron + 0.52 (r = 0.77, p less than 0.005). We have defined quantitatively the recruitment of PMN to the lung after pneumococcal challenge.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)