Chemotaxis of human basophil leucocytes

Human peripheral blood basophils from two patients with unusually high basophil counts in association with chronic myelogenous leukaemia migrated in vitro toward various chemotactic agents of human origin. These included supernatants from sensitized lymphocytes challenged with specific antigen, diffusates from lung fragments challenged with pollen antigen E, the enzyme plasma kallikrein, and two complement derived agents, C5a and C[unk][unk][unk]. Thus, chemotaxis in vitro, a previously unreported property of human basophils, has been observed, although none of the agents tested produced a selective chemotactic response.