Figure 1

Leukocyte chemotactic and chemokinetic response as a function of pH. A. Monocyte chemotactic response, as measured by monocytes migrating through filters of nucleopore chambers, is plotted as a function of pH. Monocyte chemotactic response is normalized to the maximal response for each of four repeats of the experiment (maximum response was between pH 7.0 and 7.3 for each repeat). The cells were in RPMI containing 50 mM MES. Similar results were observed when the media were acidified with buffering systems consisting of 20 mM acetic acid, 20 mM MES and 20 mM acetic acid, and 1 N HCl and when PAF was used as an alternative chemoattractant (data not shown). B. Monocyte (circles) and macrophage (squares) chemokinesis, as measured by observing cells migrating on glass slides, is plotted as a function of pH. The percent response was determined by the number of motile cells divided by the total number of cells (50–200) observed at each pH. The cells were in RPMI containing 0.125% Carbopol. C. Lymphocyte (triangles) chemokinesis is plotted as a function of pH. The percent response was determined as in B. The cells were in RPMI containing 50 mM MES (open triangles) or RPMI containing 0.125% Carbopol (closed triangles). Nonlinear regression was used to fit a sigmoidal curves for each data set: A: R = 0.95; B: R = 0.95, monocytes, 0.99 macrophages; C: R = .98 lymphocytes with Carbopol, R = .96 with MES. The minimum value was set to 0 for all curves and the maximum value to 100 for monocyte and macrophage curves. The bracket from pH 3.7 to 4.4 on the x axis of panel C indicates the pH range in a healthy, lactobacilli dominated vagina.