Selective enrichment of NADPH oxidase activity in phagosomes from guinea pig polymorphonuclear leukocytes

Recent studies have demonstrated that the activated NADPH oxidase, the enzyme responsible for the stimulation of O2 consumption with O2 formation during phagocytosis, is located in the plasma membrane of leukocytes. The present work deals with whether the activation induced by phagocytosis involves the enzyme of the entire membrane or only that of the portion of the membrane that interacts with the phagocytosable particle and forms the phagosome. The results presented show that the activity of the NADPH oxidase of phagosomal membrane, isolated by centrifugation of homogenates on discontinuous sucrose gradients, is increased 12.6-fold with respect that of homogenate. In contrast, the activities of 5'-nucleotidase and of acid p-nitrophenyl phosphatase, enzyme markers of the plasma membrane not activated during phagocytosis and uniformly distributed on the entire membrane, are increased only about three-fold with respect to that of homogenate. These results indicate that during phagocytosis and activation of NADPH oxidase is a segmentary response that involves only the enzyme that forms the phagocytic vacuole. This fact is relevant for the function of toxic intermediates of oxygen reduction that are discharged in direct contact with the engulfed agent.