Colony-Stimulating Factors and Neutrophil Migration

Excerpt

To the Editor: Clinical trials of hemopoietic growth factors have concentrated on the ability of these factors to increase circulating blood counts. Less emphasis has been given to the effects of these factors on the functional capabilities of the mature cells. There is substantial in-vitro and increasing in-vivo evidence that these growth factors may play an important role in immune function control by modulating effector cell function. The recently published UCLA Conference (1) provided a timely and thorough review of the effects of granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) on host defense. An additional recent report, relevant to this topic, has