Kinetics of oxygen metabolism during respiratory burst in Japanese eel neutrophils

Two oxygen radicals, superoxide and hydrogen peroxide, were measured by ferricytochrome C reduction and scopoletin fluorescent assays to investigate oxygen metabolism during the respiratory burst in Japanese eel neutrophils. Maximal superoxide production was obtained using 0.1 microgram/mL of PMA. Oxygen consumption was almost equivalent to superoxide production, indicating that the consumed oxygen was almost fully converted to superoxide in eel neutrophils. Hydrogen peroxide production was approximately half that of oxygen consumption or superoxide production in neutrophils elicited by killed bacteria or casein. The amounts of superoxide and hydrogen peroxide production, by neutrophils elicited by irritants, were about 11.5 and 5.0 nM/10(7) cells/ min, respectively, which were significantly higher than those of unelicited neutrophils (2.4 and 0.3 nM/10(7) cells/min, respectively).