Polymorphonuclear leukocyte dysfunction associated with feline leukaemia virus infection

1 Department of Veterinary Pathobiology and The 2 Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, U.S.A. The chemiluminescent characteristics of enriched (>95%) peripheral blood polymorphonuclear leukocyte populations (PMN) from normal and feline leukaemia virus (FeLV)-infected cats were investigated. FeLV-infected cats demonstrated a significantly lower ( P < 0.001) PMN chemiluminescent response when compared to the response of normal age-matched controls. Normal PMN treated with FeLV-infected cat serum exhibited a depressed response in comparison to control cells. A titration of serum from infected cats supplemented with normal serum revealed a titratable suppression of chemiluminescence with increasing concentration of serum from the infected cats. However, PMN from FeLV-infected cats treated with normal serum displayed a slight increase in chemiluminescence over the same cells in autologous serum. The addition of inactivated FeLV to normal PMN caused a titratable decrease in chemiluminescence. Keywords: feline leukaemia virus, neutrophil, dysfunction Received 13 March 1986; accepted 7 July 1986.