Lymphocyte membrane fluidity in peripheral vascular disease patients after treatment with pentoxifylline

Fluorescence polarization was used to investigate possible modifications of the fluidity and order in lymphocytes membranes from 19 patients treated with pentoxifylline (800 mg/day). We only studied patients with an atherosclerosis obliterans stage II (according Fontaines' classification) having received the drug (pentoxifylline) for 10 days. Anisotropy fluorescence (AF) was measured before and after treatment for each patient using the classical fluorescence probe: 1,6- Diphenyl- 1, 3, 5- Hexatriene (DPH) and the TNBS-DPH quenching method for membrane resolution. Lymphocytes with high values of AF >1.95 (and hence high viscosity) were noticeably modified after the treatment. No similar modifications were observed in cells with original values within the normal range. In these conditions pentoxifylline seems to act only on the perturbated lymphocyte membrane and do not modify the normal membrane. This could be of interest in the modulation and restauration of some immunological properties of membrane proteins under the lymphocyte membrane fluidity dependence.