FEATURES OF CHEMILUMINESCENT ACTIVITY OF NEUTROPHILIC GRANULOCYTES IN PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC GASTRITIS, CHRONIC ATROPHIC GASTRITIS AND GASTRIC CANCER

Abstract

Chronic gastritis is the most common disease of gastro-intestinal tract. Precancerous potential is among most important epidemiological features of chronic gastritis. Immune system plays a distinct role in transformation from precancerous state to malignancy. In this context, the aim of our work was a study of spontaneous and induced chemiluminescence activity of neutrophilic granulocytes in patients with chronic superficial gastritis, chronic atrophic gastritis and gastric cancer. The work presents results of comprehensive laboratory examination of patients with chronic gastritis (CG) (a total of 85 persons. 25 patients with chronic atrophic gastritis (CAG), and 50 patients with gastric cancer (GC) at the age of 19 to 70 years were enrolled. Control group included 115 healthy donors without gastrointestinal complaints at the age of 19 to 67 years. The study was performed with venous blood samples taken from cubital vein into Vacutainer tubes with sodium heparin (5 U/mL) prior to starting any pathogenic treatment. Evaluation of spontaneous and induced chemiluminescence was performed for 90 minutes at a 36-channel “CL 3606” chemiluminescence analyzer (Russia). In our study, patients with gastric cancer showed clear unidirectional changes in chemiluminescent activity of neutrophilic granulocytes (NG). When measuring spontaneous and induced NG chemiluminescence, we diagnosed a decreased phagocytic activity characterized by prolonged time-to-peak and area under the curve for spontaneous and induced CL, thus presuming longer activation time required in cases of reduced phagocytic function. The NG activity in patients with chronic gastritis is not impaired, but, similar changes of time-to-peak and area under were detected. Chemiluminescent activity of NG is increased in the group of CAG patients, and, considering similar changes in activation time and area under the curve, NG also produce greater amount of reactive oxygen species. Thus, for all H.pylori-associated diseases, the blood NG take longer time to activate, whereas their functional activity is not disturbed in CG, enhanced in CAG patients, and reduced in gastric cancer.

Keywords

• chemiluminescence
• neutrophilic granulocytes
• chronic gastritis
• gastric cancer