Inhibition of neutrophil oxidative metabolism by lysosomotropic weak bases

Maintenance of an acidic intralysosomal compartment may be relevant to multiple aspects of neutrophil function. The effect of lysosomal alkalinization on the neutrophil respiratory burst was studied by measuring cytochrome c reduction in response to soluble stimuli in the presence of lysosomotropic weak bases. The weak bases chloroquine, ammonium chloride, methylamine, and clindamycin all raised the intralysosomal pH and inhibited neutrophil oxidative metabolism at concentrations ranging from 0.1 to 100 mmol/L. Inhibition was dose dependent for each base and correlated significantly with the degree of lysosomal alkalinization. Concentrations that did not alkalinize the lysosome did not inhibit the respiratory burst. Inhibition by weak bases was seen when oxidative metabolism was stimulated by phorbol myristate acetate, calcium ionophore A23187, formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine, opsonized zymosan, or sodium fluoride. Increasing the stimulus concentration (from 5 ng/mL to 5 micrograms/mL phorbol myristate acetate and from 0.5 to 1 mumol/L A23187) diminished or abolished inhibition by weak bases. Washing the cells after incubation with bases and before stimulation substantially reversed the inhibition. None of the bases impaired detection of superoxide in a cell-free xanthine-xanthine oxidase assay. Other indexes of oxidative metabolism, including oxygen consumption and hydrogen peroxide release, were also inhibited by weak bases. Analysis of particulate NADPH oxidase activity from neutrophils stimulated in the presence of bases suggested that these cells assemble a subnormal amount of an enzyme complex with normal kinetic characteristics. Lysosomotropic weak bases alkalinized the neutrophil lysosome and produced inhibition of oxidative metabolism that was dose related, was not stimulus specific, and was largely reversed by washing the cells before stimulation. A possible explanation would be altered assembly of the enzyme complex involved in respiratory burst activation as a consequence of impaired granule/plasma membrane fusion in the presence of diminished transmembrane pH gradients.