Inhibition of Granulocyte Adherence by Lithium: Possible Relationship to Lithium-Induced Leukocytosis

Abstract

Many patients receiving lithium carbonate therapy for psychiatric disorders develop increased neutrophil counts in their peripheral blood (O’Connell, 1970; Shopsin et al., 1971). The mechanism for this neutrophilia is thought to involve the stimulation of increased neutrophil production by the marrow. Addition of lithium carbonate in therapeutic concentrations to soft agar cultures of bone marrow promotes granulocyte colony growth (Tisman et al., 1973) and this promotion has been shown to result from the production of increased colony-stimulating activity (Harker et al., 1977). A recent study of granulocyte kinetics in patients treated with lithium has shown that they develop an increased total blood granulocyte pool, an increased marginal pool, and accelerated granulocyte production (Rothstein et al., 1978). Thus, the mechanism for lithium-induced neutrophilia appears to be the stimulation of increased marrow production, with a resultant increase in total intravascular neutrophil pool.