Drugs and Phagocytes

Abstract

Phagocytic leukocytes must integrate three functions in performance of their antimicrobial defense activities: mobilization of cells from the bloodstream to the site of inflammation; phagocytosis of the invading microbe; and killing of the organism once it is ingested. The vast majority of drugs that interfere with host defense mechanisms do so not by influencing these activities but by injuring hematopoietic stem cells in the bone marrow or adversely affecting the function of differentiated lymphoid cells. For example, cytotoxic chemotherapeutic agents regularly produce neutropenia, monocytopenia, or immunologic impairment by such mechanisms. Other drugs, such as chloramphenicol, do so unpredictably. Few pharmacologic . . .