Increased chromium uptake in polymorphonuclear leukocytes from burned patients

Following thermal injury neutrophil function is severely impaired and thought to be hypometabolic; however, the host is considered to be hypermetabolic. To further investigate the metabolism and the function of neutrophils following thermal injury, neutrophil migration and chromium uptake were studied using radio-labelled neutrophils. Random and directed migration were found to be significantly reduced compared to control values. Neutrophil lysozyme content was also reduced in these burn cells while serum lysozyme from the same patients was significantly elevated over control values. These data suggest lysozyme is released by the neutrophil into the circulatory system. The influx of chromium in cells from burned patients was much greater than the influx in normal cells used in studies for chemotaxis. Influx of chromium over time and over varying concentrations of chromium was linear (r2 = 0.90) in cells from burned patients and normals. Cells from burned patients, however, took up more chromium than normals. Influx velocity of chromium was also determined and found to be greater in burn cells than normal cells. Since it has been shown that chromium influx is an energy-dependent reaction it is suggested that cellular energy stores are being depleted by the influx of chromium. Whether this is a response to an intracellular deficit or uncoupling of metabolic pathways is not known at this time.