Chemotaxis of polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) in patients suffering from recurrent infection.

. PMN function was tested in patients suffering from recurrent infections. In 65 out of 240 patients lack of oxygen radical production or reduced chemo-tactic activity was found. In most cases the reduction was transient and associated with clinical impairments of the patients. Only a few patients had primary cellular defects. In one of those patients the expression of β2 integrins was reduced, while PMN of the other patients expressed β2 integrins normally. Thus, cellular defects other than the reduced expression of β2 integrins might also result in impaired chemotactic activity.