Functional differences of human basophils with different densities.

Abstract

It has been reported that blood basophils comprise two populations of different densities. In this study, we compared the responses of two populations of basophils (band-1 and 2 basophils) to several secretagogues and anti-allergic agents. Twelve patients with bronchial asthma, 3 patients with Japanese cedar pollinosis and 6 healthy subjects were included in this study. Band-2 basophils collected from the interface between Percoll of density 1.078 and 1.068 g/ml released histamine better in response to anti-IgE than band-1 basophils taken from the interface between plasma and Percoll 1.068 (band 1 vs. band 2, 13.2 +/- 2.7 vs. 21.4 +/- 3.6% at 1:10(5), p less than 0.01; 47.1 +/- 5.0 vs. 57.7 +/- 6.1% at 1:10(4), p less than 0.01). Band-2 basophils also responded better to formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine than band-1 basophils (34.4 +/- 4.9 vs. 43.2 +/- 5.6% at 10(-6) M, p less than 0.01; 35.6 +/- 5.0 vs. 45.2 +/- 5.7% at 10(-5) M, p less than 0.01). In contrast, band-1 basophils were much more sensitive to the calcium ionophore A23187 stimulation than band-2 basophils (13.0 +/- 3.7 vs. 6.3 +/- 1.8% at 0.05 microgram/ml, p less than 0.05; 52.5 +/- 4.3 vs. 33.8 +/- 3.9% at 0.1 microgram/ml, p less than 0.01; 71.3 +/- 3.3 vs. 51.5 +/- 4.2% at 0.2 microgram/ml, p less than 0.01).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)