Potential Role of Neutrophil-Platelet Interaction in Increased Susceptibility to Infection of Patients with Down Syndrome.

Objective: Recurrent infection in Down syndrome (DS) has been previously documented; the potential role of platelets and neutrophil-platelet interaction has not been addressed in previous studies.

Patients And Methods: Using flow cytometry, we evaluated CD40 and CD18 expression as activation markers for neutrophils and CD62p as an activation marker for platelets, before and after lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation, in 34 patients with DS and 39 control patients.

Results: Markers were evaluated as percentage of positivity, mean fluorescent intensity (MFI), and activation index (MFI after stimulation/MFI before stimulation).