Oxygen-dependent and oxygen-independent mechanisms of microbicidal activity of neutrophils

The essential role of the phagocyte in host defense against the enormous variety of microbial predators in our environment requires the availability of a "universal" weapon effective against most microbes, or an arsenal of different agents with specificity for different classes and species of microorganisms. Both polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) and mononuclear phagocytes possess, or can produce, a wide range of antimicrobial agents providing these cells with an "overkill" capacity [1] that will usually bypass microbial defenses against a given antimicrobial device of the phagocyte. In this brief review we focus on the PMN because its antimicrobial systems have been analyzed most extensively. However, the killing mechanisms of mononuclear phagocytes and PMN are sufficiently similar to permit the insights gained from the study of the PMN to be applied to all phagocytes, including macrophages.