The Action of Cells from Patients with Chronic Granulomatous Disease on Staphylococcus Aureus

Abstract

Neutrophil leukocytes from patients with the inherited immunodeficiency syndrome chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) killed 80% of ingested S. aureus. Bacterial killing was not impaired by increasing the ratio of bacteria to cells from 1:1 to 10:1. The organisms that survived within the patients'' cells did not themselves appear to constitute an unduly resistant subpopulation; they were killed when exposed to fresh cells; no growth phase of a synchronous culture was particularly resistant. The pH within the phagocytic vacuoles of CGD neutrophils and monocytes was abnormally low; methylamine, which normalizes this vacuolar pH, improved killing. Clumped bacteria appeared to be more resistant to killing than dispersed ones, suggesting that organisms near the center of a clump might be protected from the toxicity of the compromised killing systems in cells of these patients.