An adverse wound environment activates leukocytes prematurely
B. R. Moelleken, S. J. Mathes, A. Amerhauser, H. Scheuenstuhl and T. K. Hunt
Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine 94143.
This study was designed to evaluate the effect of different wound
environments on wound activation. Our wound model provided two distinct
environments, a well vascularized musculocutaneous flap and a poorly
perfused random-pattern flap, in miniature swine. Leukocytes were isolated
and analyzed by the following three variables: surface and total cellular
Mac-1 (CD11b/CD18), superoxide anion expression, and lactoferrin release.
Leukocytes from the unfavorable, poorly oxygenated wound environment
activate on entry into the wound. Leukocytes from the musculocutaneous flap
wound are better able to respond to a maximal challenge with the phorbol
ester, phorbol myristate acetate. These findings may account for the
enhanced bactericidal actions of the musculocutaneous flap compared with
the random-pattern flap observed clinically.
