Granulocytes and red cell lysis.

By RICHARD I. WALKER, J. C. HERIOX AND S. \V. SMITH, Jn. A N UNEXPECTED INCREASE in resistance to osmotic lysis of red cells passed through cotton has been observed many times in this laboratory during procedures for obtaining samples of pure lymphocytes for chemical analysis1 and in vitro culture.2 This increased resistance has been manifest by incomplete lysis on exposure to hypotonic solution usually sufficient to hemolyze red cells completely.3 Stasis in vivo in the spleen and erythroconcentration in vitro produced increased fragility of red cells in hypotonic solutions. Turner,5 studying red cell lysis by cobra venom, noted, in red cells removed from spleens, complete lysis by traces of venom that did not hemolyze red cells isolated from blood. He correlated lysis with the presence of leukocytes, and by adding leukocytes he effected hemolysis in a venom-red cell system in which lysis did not ordinarily occur. He did not further characterize the phenomenon. Since granulocytes are removed quantitatively from blood by incubation on cotton, it seemed appropriate to determine if these elements might participate in red cell lysis. The general plan of these studies has been to test the effect of granulocytes and some granulocyte components on the amount of hemolysis produced by exposure to solutions of different osmolarity. This report presents the substance of these studies showing that granulocytes and granuloc te lysosomes do possess hemolytic activity.