Effect of long-term corticosteroid therapy on monocyte chemotaxis in man

The influence of prednisolone on monocyte chemotactic activity in vitro at prednisolone concentrations comparable with those achieved in man following oral dosage has been investigated. Chemotactic activity of monocytes from each of sixteen normal subjects was suppressed by concentrations of prednisolone as low as 25 ng/ml (suppression of chemotaxis, 20%). Maximal suppression occurred at 100 ng/ml (suppression of chemotaxis, 48%) and no significant increase in suppression was produced by increasing the concentration to 200 ng/ml (suppression of chemotaxis, 53%). In contrast, monocytes isolated from ten patients receiving corticosteroid therapy showed no significant suppression of chemotactic activity when exposed to these concentrations of prednisolone, even though they exhibited a normal ability to respond to a chemotactic stimulus. The lack of suppression of monocyte chemotaxis in patients receiving corticosteroid therapy is unexplained, but may represent a change in the circulating monocyte or lymphocyte populations.