Cytochrome b, flavins, and ubiquinone-50 in enucleated human neutrophils (polymorphonuclear leukocyte cytoplasts)

Neutrophilic granulocytes contain an oxidase system in their plasma membrane that can be activated to generate superoxide radicals and hydrogen peroxide. Cytochrome b, flavoprotein, and ubiquinone-50 have been proposed as components of this oxidase system. These components have been quantitated, but the results are obscured by different isolation procedures for plasma membranes from resting and activated neutrophils. This problem has now been avoided by the use of enucleated neutrophils (polymorphonuclear leukocyte cytoplasts), which are almost completely devoid of intracellular structures but contain an intact, activatable oxidase system (Roos, D., Voetman, A.A., and Meerhof, L.J. (1983) J. Cell Biol. 97, 368-377). Membranes of resting and phorbol myristate acetate-stimulated cytoplasts contain equal amounts of cytochrome b (4 pmol/milliunit of alkaline phosphatase) and also equal amounts of noncovalently bound FAD (2 pmol/milliunit of alkaline phosphatase). These findings refute the hypothesis that incorporation of cytochrome b and/or a flavoprotein into the plasma membrane constitutes the mechanism of activation of the oxidase system. Ubiquinone-50 is present neither in intact neutrophils nor in cytoplasts, excluding a role for this compound in the generation of bactericidal oxygen species by neutrophils.