Quantification of the locomotive behavior of polymorphonuclear leukocytes
in clot preparations
TH Howard
Time-lapse videotape recordings of polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs) from
clot preparations were used to quantify the locomotive behavior of
individual PMNs from normal subjects. Tracings derived from the videotapes
allow one to quantify multiple parameters of the locomotive behavior of
PMNs--direction, distance, rate, and angle of turn. The results obtained
are reproducible from subject-to-subject and from
preparation-to-preparation. The method allows the investigator to record
the locomotive behavior of 100 cells simultaneously within a 5- min period
and analyze the recording as time permits. We utilized this technique to
compare the locomotive behavior of slow and fast PMNs (arbitrarily defined
as cells that move less than or equal to 7.0 micrometer/min and greater
than 7.0 micrometer/min mean rate of locomotion, respectively). The studies
show that slow and fast PMNs, thus defined, differ not only in mean rate of
locomotion but also in their rate of locomotion during periods of active
locomotion, in the number of periods of inactivity/PMN/5 min (slow = 1.65
+/- 0.31; fast = 0.36 +/- 0.12), and in their turning behavior as measured
by angle of turn (slow = 92 degrees +/- 39 degrees; fast = 39 degrees +/-
35 degrees). These results show that human PMNs from clot preparations are
remarkably heterogeneous in their locomotive behavior, and the results
suggest this heterogeneity is due to endogenous differences within cells.
Volume 59,
Issue 5,
pp. 946-951,
05/01/1982
Copyright © 1982 by The American Society of Hematology
