Engulfment and bactericidal capabilities of peripheral blood leukocytes in chronic leukemias

Abstract

The phagocytic function of peripheral blood leukocytes from 7 patients with chronic myelocytic leukemia (CML; 10 studies) and 7 patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL; 11 studies) was assessed using noncapsulated Diplococcus pneumoniae. Evaluation was based on the simultaneous use of normal controls, the exact equilibration of the phagocytic potential of suspensions of patients' and controls' phagocytes in each other's, as well as autologous serum, and the maintenance of reasonable and constant ratios of bacteria to phagocytes. Neither CML nor CLL phagocytes displayed a consistent depression of either engulfment or of bactericidal functions, compared with phagocytes from normal controls.