The Role of Oxygen in the Priming of Neutrophils on Exposure to a Weak Magnetic Field

A preliminary mild partial degassing of a neutrophil suspension at an atmospheric gas pressure of 640 mm Hg was accompanied by a decrease in oxygen to 412 ng-atom O/mL and was shown to cause a significant (fourfold) decrease in neutrophil priming index on exposure to combined weak magnetic fields (a static magnetic field of 42 μT and a low-frequency collinear alternating magnetic field of 860 nT; 1, 4.4, and 16.5 Hz) but did not affect the cell potential to generate a respiratory burst in response to an activator (the peptide N-formyl–Met–Leu–Phe) in the control. A partial replacement of the air mixture with carbogen, xenon, or sulfur hexafluoride reduced the intensity of luminol-dependent chemiluminescence of the samples.