Human newborns are more susceptible than adults to bacterial infection. With gram-negative bacteria, this may be due to a diminished response of newborn leukocytes to lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Since protein tyrosine kinase inhibition abolishes LPS priming in adult cells, we hypothesized that protein tyrosine kinases may have a critical role in LPS priming of polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMNs) and that newborn PMNs may have altered protein tyrosine kinase activities. In the present study, we investigated the role of src family protein tyrosine kinases in the LPS response of newborn PMNs compared to adult cells. In a respiratory assay, the LPS-primed increase in formylmethionylleucylphenylalanine (fMLP)-triggered O2- release by adult PMNs was greatly decreased by PP1 [4-amino-5-(4-methyphenyl)-7-(t-butyl)pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine], a src kinase inhibitor, to the level of untreated newborn PMNs, in which LPS failed to prime. LPS activated the src-like kinases p59hck (HCK) and p58fgr (FGR) in both adult and newborn PMNs but increased the activation of p53/56lyn (LYN) only in adult cells. In newborn PMNs, LYN was highly phosphorylated independent of LPS. We evaluated subcellular fractions of PMNs and found that the phosphorylated form of LYN was mainly in the Triton-extractable, cytosolic fraction in adult PMNs, while in newborn cells it was located mainly in Triton-insoluble, granule- and membrane-associated fractions. In contrast, the phosphorylated mitogen-activated protein kinases ERK1/2 and p38 were mainly detected in the cytosol in both adult and newborn PMNs. These data indicate a role for LYN in the regulation of LPS priming. The trapping of phosphorylated LYN in the membrane-granule fraction in newborn PMNs may contribute to the deficiency of newborn cells in responding to LPS stimulation.