Low-Level Chemiluminescent Analysis of Nondiluted Human Blood Reveals its Dynamic System Properties

Abstract

Lucigenin- and luminol-dependent chemiluminescence [(LC-CL) and (LM-CL)] in nondiluted human blood was studied. LM-CL was low in fresh blood and disappeared after its storage for 3 h, though the respiratory burst (RB) stimulation in blood was followed by high intensity and long-lasting LM-CL. LC-CL was high in fresh blood and was steadily increasing with blood storage. Blood dilution with saline resulted in LC-CL attenuation and LM-CL elevation. LC-CL did not depend on air supply to blood, while LM-CL elevation during RB needed constant blood aeration. The results suggest that besides a well-known mechanism of reactive oxygen species production by neutrophils during RB, another process of electron excited state generation reflected by LC-CL operates in blood. It needs blood integrity for its manifestation and uses oxygen supplied by erythrocytes. Dynamic system properties of blood were revealed also in experiments with blood transfer from one sample to another in the course of RB. Highly nonlinear changes of CL intensity both in a "donor" and in a "recipient" sample resulted in strong differences in CL levels in two samples, one of which was prepared by blood subtraction, and another by blood addition. We suggest that CL data from measurements on nondiluted blood may be informative of integrative properties of blood tissue in addition to its being a measure of some sort of oxidative metabolism in it. © 1999 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.