Measurement of superoxide release in the phagovacuoles of immune complex-stimulated human neutrophils.

Immune complex stimulation of human neutrophils elicits, among other events, the formation of phagocytic vacuoles into which the products of the stimulus activated oxidative burst and degranulation are released. In order to monitor burst activity in the phagocytic vacuole, we have developed a fluorochrome-coupled derivative of this neutrophil agonist. The fluorochrome 2',7'-dichlorodihydrofluorescein (DCFH) (the nonfluorescent, reduced form of 2',7'-dichlorofluorescein (DCF] has been covalently linked to bovine serum albumin (BSA), which can be used to form an immune complex with anti-BSA immunoglobulin. The resultant complex is an effective agonist for stimulating all immune complex-mediated neutrophil responses, as compared to nonderivatized controls. Upon exposure to hydrogen peroxide the stimulus-linked probe is converted to its oxidized, fully fluorescent form, the fluorescence of which is linearly related to the extent of probe oxidation. Using flow cytometry, we have demonstrated that the probe-stimulus complex is capable of monitoring the kinetics of the production of activated oxygen species by the membrane bound NADPH-oxidase enzyme, presumably within the phagocytic vacuoles of immune complex-activated neutrophils. We have found that the immune complex-mediated activation of the oxidative burst within the phagocytic compartment is preceded by a lag of approximately 30 s followed by a large sustained release of superoxide dependent hydrogen peroxide. Neutrophils from patients with chronic granulomatous disease, however, demonstrated no sustained increase in probe fluorescence, a finding consistent with the lack of oxidative burst activity in these cells. The DCFH-immune complex conjugate therefore provides an effective probe for monitoring the kinetics of the localized release of oxidative products within the forming phagocytic vacuoles of activated neutrophils, and may be used to further examine both the activation and activity of human neutrophils in response to 'physiologic' host defense agonists such as immune complexes.