Premium
The chemokinetic inhibitory factor (CIF) in serum of CLL patients: Correlation with infection propensity and disease activity
Author(s) -
Siegbahn Agneta,
Simonsson Bengt,
Venge Per
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of haematology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1600-0609
pISSN - 0036-553X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0609.1985.tb00805.x
Subject(s) - lymphokine , chronic lymphocytic leukemia , immunology , glycoprotein , medicine , gastroenterology , leukemia , biology , immune system , microbiology and biotechnology
We have recently described the partial purification and characterization of a neutrophil migration inhibitory activity present in serum from patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL). This new lymphokine, the chemokinetic inhibitory factor (CIF), is produced by B‐CLL cells. It is a heat‐labile glycoprotein of an approximate molecular weight (m. w.) of 30000. In this extended investigation 64/89 CLL‐patients had CIF in their serum. CLL serum diluted to a concentration of 0.02% gave significantly decreased chemokinetic activity, suggesting that CIF is potent at very low concentrations. 31/89 patients had increased infection propensity. Significantly more patients with CIF in serum had infections compared to the group with normal susceptibility to infections. The combination of low Ig levels and CIF in serum discriminated even better between the infection‐prone and non‐infection‐prone patients. CIF in serum was not correlated to tumour cell mass — estimated by Rai clinical staging — tumour progression or deox‐ythymidine kinase, S‐TK, an enzyme that may reflect proliferating cells. The existence of this new lymphokine in serum seems to contribute to the increased susceptibility to infections seen in CLL patients.