Role of peroxide in phagocytic killing of pneumococci

Abstract

Two mutants of a pneumococcus type I with diminished peroxide production were selected from a population of nitrosoguanidine treated cells. White cells of normal patients killed the mutant pneumococci as well as the otherwise isogenic wild type strain. In patients studied with chronic granulomatous disease, however, the peroxide poor strain was killed far less well than the wild type. These studies indicate that the removal of a peroxide generating system in the phagocytic vacuole specifically brings forth the killing defect in chronic granulomatous disease.