Neutrophil chemotaxis and receptor expression in clinical septic shock

To examine the hypothesis that neutrophil chemotaxis to interleukin-8 (IL-8) is reduced in septic shock. Surface expression of neutrophil CXC chemokine receptors and the adhesion molecule CD11b were also examined and associations between disease severity, gas exchange and receptor expression were studied. Prospective cohort clinical study. SETTING. Intensive care unit in a tertiary referral teaching hospital. Patients with septic shock ( n=15) and healthy controls ( n=8) were studied. Daily (for 5 consecutive days) flow cytometric measurements of chemokine and beta integrin surface expression. "In vitro" neutrophil chemotaxis to IL-8 was also compared between patients with sepsis and healthy controls. CXCR2 expression significantly fell, CD11b expression increased and CXCR1 expression was unchanged throughout the study in the septic group compared with healthy controls. CD11b positively correlated with increasing APACHE II scores ( p