[Influence of antibiotics on leukocyte migration]

Polymorphonuclear granulocytes play an important role in the immediate unspecific host response, and a depression of their functions can be found in many patients with severe or recurrent infections. Therefore administration of drugs causing such impairment in PMN function may be regarded as an additional risk for negative side effects to the patient. In our report the influence of 13 antibiotics--amphotericin B, ampicillin, tauglicolcillin, amoxicillin, cloxacillin, dicloxacillin, cephaloridine, cefalexin, cefuroxime, chloramphenicol, gentamicin, rifamycin, fosfomycin--on the granulocyte spontaneous and induced migration is investigated under in vitro experimental conditions. Human PMN preincubated with the antibiotics appropriately brought to the desired concentrations (therapeutic dose, 1/10 and 10X) in Hepes-Medium 199-water solution pH 7.2, were washed three times and tested for spontaneous and induced migration under agarose. Our experiments demonstrate that amphotericin B, cefalexin, cephaloridine, cefuroxime, chloramphenicol, dicloxacillin, gentamicin and rifamycin can inhibit in vitro human PMN chemotaxis and/or random migration. Inhibition of intracellular respiratory enzyme synthesis, presence of inactive metabolites of the drug, alterations of cyclic AMP and GMP or of the membrane bound divalent cations can be responsible of the phenomenon.