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Updated: Aug 15, 2026

Studying Interactions of Staphylococcus aureus with Neutrophils by Flow Cytometry and Time Lapse Microscopy
Published on: July 17, 2013
Oxygen-dependent killing of Staphylococcus aureus by human neutrophils
S W Edwards1, J E Say, C A Hart
1Department of Biochemistry, University of Liverpool, UK.
Abstract:
Luminol-dependent chemiluminescence was used as a monitor of reactive oxidant generation during phagocytosis of Staphylococcus aureus by human neutrophils. Reactive oxidants play a crucial role in the killing of this organism because: (a) S. aureus was killed most rapidly when the rate of increase of chemiluminescence was greatest; (b) neutrophils which had been activated to generate reactive oxidants by re-aeration of anaerobic suspensions killed this bacterium more efficiently than control suspensions; and (c) neutrophils from a patient with chronic granulomatous disease could neither generate reactive oxidants nor kill S. aureus.
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