Stimulation of hexose uptake by human eosinophils with chemotactic factors

The ability of several stimuli, all of which have been reported to stimulate eosinophil motility, to augment uptake or extracellular deoxyglucose (DOG), a glucose analogue, was studied. DOG uptake was stimulated in a concentration-dependent manner by the more potent chemotaxins--zymosan-activated serum, partially purified C5a. N-formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine, and 5- and 11-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acids. Less potent stimuli--the eosinophil chemotactic factor of anaphylaxis, histamine, and prostaglandin E2--did not stimulate DOG uptake. However, the correlation between the abilities of the agents to stimulate motility and DOG uptake was not completely uniform. Prostaglandin F2 alpha was a potent stimulant of DOG uptake yet is known to enhance only weakly chemokinesis and to be not chemotactic for eosinophils. The combined data from this and other studies indicate that these stimuli elicit specific and different sets of functional responses from eosinophils.