Respiratory burst in human neutrophils

During phagocytosis of microbial intruders, professional phagocytes of our innate immune system increase their oxygen consumption through the activity of an NADPH-oxidase that generates superoxide anion (O-2(-)) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2. These oxygen metabolites give rise to yet other reactive ox ygen species that are strongly anti-microbial but which may also cause dama ge by destructing surrounding tissue and inducing apoptosis in other immune reactive cells. The development of methodology to measure the generation/r elease of phagocyte respiratory burst products is thus of great importance, and a number of different techniques are currently in use for this purpose . Three of the techniques that we have used, (luminol/isoluminol amplified chemiluminescence, cytochrome C reduction, and PHPA oxidation technique) ar e described in more detail in this review. We hope to convince the readers that these techniques are valuable tools in basic as well as more clinicall y oriented research dealing with phagocyte function. The basic principles f or luminol/isoluminol-amplified chemiluminescence is used as the starting p oint for discussing methodological problems related to measurements of oxyg en metabolites generated by professional phagocytes. (C) 1999 Elsevier Scie nce B.V. All rights reserved.