In vitro effect of heroin on neutrophil polymorphonuclear leukocytes from peripheral blood

BACKGROUND: Infections are the most common medical complications in drug addicts. Some studies suggest that heroin itself could facilitate them by altering the polymorphonuclear leukocyte (PMNL) function of these patients. The aim of this study was to analyze the heroin effect on the chemotaxis, the phagocytosis and the bactericidal oxidative metabolic activity on PMNL from 10 healthy adults. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Three samples of 20 ml of blood were obtained from each donor, separating the leukocytes later. The first sample was used as control (A group); heroin was added to the blood of the second sample before PMNL separation (1 mg of heroin into 20 ml of blood)(B group) and to the third sample after PMNL separation (0.05 mg of heroin in 1 ml of PMNL suspension)(C group). The concentration of heroin used was 50 microliters/ml of blood (this concentration was higher than the lethal concentration found in the blood of drug addicts who die from heroin overdose). The PMNL functions studied in vitro were the chemotaxis of PMNL applying the under agarosa gel method, and for the phagocytosis and the intracellular oxidative metabolic activity the following two tests were used: the ingestion of bacto-latex particles combined with nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT) reduction test and the chemoluminiscence method. The statistical analysis was done using parametric and non-parametric tests. RESULTS: There were no differences between the three groups studied (A, B or C) regarding chemotaxis, the ingestion of bacto-latex particles and the NBT reduction test. Concerning chemoluminiscence, it was inferior in the C group (with PMNL directly incubated with heroin) compared with A group (control) and B group (with PMNL from blood with heroin)(p < 0.05). However, there were no statistically significant differences between A and B groups. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, heroin did not have any in vitro significative effect of chemotaxis, phagocytosis and oxidative metabolic activity on the human PMNL.