Antibiotic binding to human polymorphonuclear neutrophils, mouse leukemia L1210 cells and mouse thymocytes

This report describes a system in which antibiotics could be compared for binding to different mammalian cells. These included functional phagocytes (human polymorphonuclear neutrophils; PMNs), non-phagocytic lymphocytes (mouse thymocytes), and non-functional leukocytes (mouse leukemia L1210 cells). When antibiotics bound to PMNs, they bound about the same to L1210 cells but much less to thymocytes. Combining these data with previous data, the ranking of cells that bound the greatest amount of antibiotics was: PMNs = L1210 cells = blood mononuclear leukocytes greater than thymocytes greater than erythrocytes. Thus, antibiotics bind differentially and not indiscriminately to mammalian cells.