Inhibition of human neutrophil b2 integrin-dependent adherence by hyperbaric oxygen. Thom, Stephen R., Ignacio Mendiguren, Kevin Hardy, Todd Bolotin, Donald Fisher, Monique Nebolon, and Laurie Kilpatrick. University of Pennsylvania, Institute for Environmental Medicine, Department of Emergency Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, and Childrens' Hospital of Philadelphia Department of Immunology
APStracts 3:0247C, 1996.
Animal and clinical investigations have reported that exposure to hyperbaric oxygen improved the outcome of some reperfusion injuries. Animal studies have suggested that this may be due to an inhibition of leukocyte adherence to injured endothelium. This investigation tested the hypothesis that exposure to hyperbaric oxygen would inhibit [beta]2 integrin dependent adherence of human neutrophils. Subjects were exposed to oxygen at partial pressures of up to 3 atmospheres absolute for 45 minutes and neutrophil binding to nylon columns and to fibrinogen-coated surfaces was measured. Exposure to oxygen at 2.8 or 3.0 atmospheres absolute inhibited [beta]2 integrin dependent neutrophil adherence, but had no effect on the cell-surface expression of [beta]2 integrins, respiratory burst in response to phorbol ester, or non-[beta]2 integrin dependent adherence to plastic plates coated with a fibronectin-like protein. [beta]2 integrin adherence was restored by incubating blood with 8 bromo-cyclic GMP and hyperbaric oxygen inhibited synthesis of cyclic GMP by neutrophils stimulated with formyl-methionyl leucine phenylalanine. In studies with cell fractions, the activity of membrane guanylate cyclase was found to be increased by incubation with formyl-methionyl leucine phenylalanine, as well as by atrial natriuretic peptide plus ATP. Hyperbaric oxygen had no effect on the basal activity of soluble or membrane-bound guanylate cyclase. However, hyperbaric oxygen inhibited the function of both the extracellular binding domain of membrane guanylate cyclase, as well as intracellular catalytic activity. There are approximately 7300 membrane guanylate cyclase molecules/ cell, based on binding studies with atrial natriuretic peptide, with a Kd of approximately 450 pM. Hyperbaric oxygen inhibits the function of human neutrophil [beta]2 integrins by a process linked to impaired synthesis of cyclic GMP.

Received 12 April 1996; accepted in final form 23 February 1996.
APS Manuscript Number C204-6.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Cell Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1996 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 21 August 1996