Granulocyte transfusion in septic canine neonates.

Newborn dogs were inoculated intratracheally with 0.5-1.0 X 10(8) Staphylococcus aureus/g body weight. Neutropenia (490 +/- 280 neutrophils/mm 3 versus 8,390 +/- 490 control, mean +/- S.E., P less than 0.001), and depletion of the marrow neutrophil storage pool (3 +/- 1% versus 27 +/- 2% storage neutrophils, P less than 0.001) occurred 5-6 h following the inoculation. All animals died at 6-10 h. Additional inoculated pups were selected at random to receive transfusions of either granulocytes, plasma or red blood cells. Granulocyte transfusions (3 X 10(9) neutrophils/kg) improved survival (P less than 0.005), but plasma and red blood cells did not.